What’s your criteria for a good film? Does it have to be funny, smart or entertaining? “Shaolin Soccer” alternates between being very funny and very unfunny, requires almost no brain power to watch, and is more of a spectacle than a film. What do you do with that?
I say, enjoy. It’s not every day that one of Hong Kong’s top-grossing comedies is released stateside. This may be with good reason — it’s obvious that much of the humor doesn’t translate well at all. But this story about a group of Shaolin monks-turned-soccer players has enough charm and wild energy to carry the film above its somewhat mundane humor.
Writer/director/actor Stephen Chow is somewhat of a cash cow in Hong Kong, cornering the Jim Carrey-esque market of juvenile films dubbed “Mo Let Tau”, or “nonsense comedy.” This means plenty of stereotypical fat jokes and insults like “stop or my family will commit suicide in front of you.” You won’t know whether to laugh with the jokes or at them.
Chow plays Sing, an out-of-work former Shaolin monk who decides to form a soccer team with his fellow ex-monks and a has-been soccer coach. The unlikely team needs much coaxing in order to be assembled, and this early portion contains some of the better dialogue of the film. Once the team gets its footing (pun totally intended), they’re up and running, busting Crouching Tiger-style kicks over witless nonmonks trying hopelessly to keep up.
The good? Kung Fu stunts, with the flying and the kicks and whatnot, are always fun to watch. The bad? Many of the stunts are CG-animated and look that way. Whereas in a film like “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” the stunts looked almost believable in their fluidity, these are completely cartoonish and ridiculous. At times, the stunts are hilarious. Other times they feel inhuman and awkward.
There’s also the fact that the Shaolin team is just too good. Beyond the initial frustrations, there’s no challenge in the monks’ victories. It becomes less like “Bad News Bears” and more like watching the Yankees — you don’t want to root for them. That is, until, they come up against Team Evil, an anonymously villainous group of players hopped up on those pesky “American drugs.” This final showdown is by far the best part of the film, showcasing impressive special effects as the players fire balls down the field like Dragonball Z characters.
“Shaolin Soccer” has its share of flaws, namely that at a much-cut 87 minutes, the character development and love story don’t make much sense. But fans of both Kung Fu films and slapstick comedy shouldn’t miss this dose of riotous filmmaking from overseas.