Ìý Giving new meaning to the phrase chop-socky, Stephen Chow stars in and directs sporting comedy Shaolin Soccer where kung fu meets football. Boasting "energy, charm and downright silliness," this is undoubtedly the most bizarre film to come out of Hong Kong in recent years, but critics were thoroughly enamoured and it's quickly developed a cult following among western audiences.
Just For Kicks
Chow explains how he balanced directing and starring in Shaolin Soccer in a 'making of' featurette that's packed with behind-the-scenes footage. He also reveals that "half the budget went on special effects", although scenes of Chi Chung Lam licking a raw egg yolk off someone's dirty old trainer is sadly real. (If you can stomach it, there's more egg-scruciating silliness in the outtakes reel.) Meanwhile footballing baker Vicki Zhao is miffed at having to hide behind synthetic scars, saying, "Because I play an ugly girl, the makeup took four hours a day - it was a pain to make my nice skin scaly and horrible." (Jeez, you never heard Charlize Theron complaining.) Then there's goalie Chan Kwok Kwan who bears an uncanny resemblance to Bruce Lee, but admits to being less assured when it comes to performing those kung-fu stunts. He confesses, "I set a record with 37 takes for one scene." And you thought Beckham was rubbish on penalties...
Extra Time
In fact old Golden Balls might do well to browse the guide to Shaolin Soccer. It's a novel interactive feature that breaks down some of the key techniques with madcap animation and inspirational quotes. For instance, The Mighty Steel Leg technique: "Make leg light as feather, hard as steel and fast as fast steel feather." What, you think Sven-Goran Eriksson has got any better ideas!?
The special effects featurette is rather disappointing since there's no commentary to explain what's happening. It merely splits the relevant scenes into their composite layers and cobbles these together as a seven-minute music video. It feels like a glaring omission for a movie that relies on special effects as heavily as this one. Still, an extended cut of the film - with an extra 20 minutes of ball play - means fans will definitely get a kick out of this DVD.
EXTRA FEATURES
