After a fateful mistake costing his career, an ex-soccer player bum meets a shaolin kung fu student trying to spread the word of kung fu. The ex-soccer player helps reconcile with his five brothers, and teaches them soccer, adding shaolin kung fu as a twist.Written by
ravedragon
In the beginning of the movie, when young Fung (Golden Leg) misses the goal, the scoreboard shows both team names, Universe (distributor) and The Star (production company). See more »
Goofs
In the English dub the team "mo gui dui" is translated into "Team Evil", even though that has nothing to do with the original name, a better translation is "Devils" or "Demons". See more »
Quotes
Sing:
Why do you look like E.T.?
Mui:
You said I should get rid of the hair in my eyes.
See more »
Some of the changes to "Shaolin Soccer" found in the new Miramax U.S. cut:
The film has been shortened from 102 minutes to just over 80
The opening titles have been deleted. Replaced by main title over generic "Asian" background.
The opening B&W bribery scene between Golden Leg and Hung has been deleted.
A musical sequence with Sing and the gang outside of Mui's sweet roll shop has been reinstated.
Dialog has been removed between Sing and Iron Head during the club scenes, and the song they perform is in a major key, rather than the original minor key.
Also gone are some of the bottle-to-head smashes on Iron Head.
The vomit and fart gags have been deleted from Sing's first soccer attack in the streets.
All the initial meetings with the Brothers have been shortened.
The film is dubbed into English, thus not allowing time for the true translation of the screenplay. Dialog is often without the meaning the original version contained.
Sing's apartment scene is deleted.
The first of the two iterations of the "egg" joke with Little Brother and Iron Short during soccer training remains in the Miramax cut.
Golf course scene between Hung and Golden Leg has been cut out.
The final soccer match has a variety of cuts in it, mostly to take out the more extreme visuals featuring blood and violence.
A cover version of "Kung Fu Fighting" is used over the last scene of the film and the end credits, removing the score entirely.
References to Team Evil's use of illegal American drugs have been replaced with references to "training."
This film was seen as something of a surprise. Having only heard of Shaolin Soccer on the net, and seen a teaser for the film, I thought nothing more of it until given the opportunity to go and watch the UK release. My initial disappointment with the dubbing (I am a subtitle die-hard) was soon overcome with admiration of how far HK cinema has come. Imagine the FX expertise of the Matrix with the comedy of Jackie Chan fused into a somewhat generic football film. In a word, a brilliantly scripted and often funny film. Many moments are extremely funny, with the over-the-top storyline made famous by HK, and also the very touching moments with the acne-ridden baker girl/love interest as she is only accepted for what she is. It feels as if there is more to the love story in the original cut of the film, as the story occasionally skipped in places, like a bad DVD. But the overall story is not affected, it moves sedately at first, which is good, as the excessive use of Kung-fu and Football are shown in increasingly ridiculous stages. The final goal reminds me of Hot-Shot Hamish, for those that read the comics. Worth seeing, and I can't wait for the DVD - providing it has the original cut, and subtitles.
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This film was seen as something of a surprise. Having only heard of Shaolin Soccer on the net, and seen a teaser for the film, I thought nothing more of it until given the opportunity to go and watch the UK release. My initial disappointment with the dubbing (I am a subtitle die-hard) was soon overcome with admiration of how far HK cinema has come. Imagine the FX expertise of the Matrix with the comedy of Jackie Chan fused into a somewhat generic football film. In a word, a brilliantly scripted and often funny film. Many moments are extremely funny, with the over-the-top storyline made famous by HK, and also the very touching moments with the acne-ridden baker girl/love interest as she is only accepted for what she is. It feels as if there is more to the love story in the original cut of the film, as the story occasionally skipped in places, like a bad DVD. But the overall story is not affected, it moves sedately at first, which is good, as the excessive use of Kung-fu and Football are shown in increasingly ridiculous stages. The final goal reminds me of Hot-Shot Hamish, for those that read the comics. Worth seeing, and I can't wait for the DVD - providing it has the original cut, and subtitles.