Starring:
Stephen Chow, Vicki Zhao, Man Tat Ng, Yut Fei Wong, Kwok Kuen Chan, Lam Chi Chung and Chi-Sing Lam

Director:
Stephen Chow

Running Time:
87 mins

• Exciting combination of Shaolin Martial Arts and Soccer
• Nicely over the top
• Good performances
• A lot of fun

• COuld have shown more of the tournament matches

Disgraced Soccer star Golden Leg (Tat Ng) sees a chance to get back at his old team when he discovers a young man called Sing (Chow) who is skilled in the ancient Shaolin martial arts and wants to use sports as a way of introducing the masses to the discipline. Golden Leg takes it on himself to be his coach and together they bring in Sing's brothers to form a team. The combination of Shaolin martial arts and soccer makes them almost invincible, that is until they come up against Evil Team, who use black magic to enhance their skills.

The most popular sport in the world has never really hit the cinematic heights of other movies in the genre but Shaolin Soccer does its best to change all that.

With only "Escape to Victory" reaching the classic status amongst football fans, the Soccer movie is wide open for someone else to have a crack at it. Writer/Director Stephen Chow does just that and has real fun doing it. Combining the beautiful game with martial arts, Chow and his cast and crew create one of the most fun sports movies ever made.

Never taking itself seriously in the slightest, Shaolin Soccer sets its stall out early as a comedy sports movie that just happens to have some over the top martial arts in it as well. This is a movie of two halves. In the first half we get stuck into the comedy filled soccer training. Here we get to see our heroes trying to combine their Shaolin skills with the basics of football, with hysterical results. The second half sees the team enter the tournament and this is when the real fun begins.

Combining football, martial arts and special effects to produce a really outrageous spectacle, the tournament is the highlight of the movie. Here we see the team bulldoze their way through the other competitors in spectacular fashion. For a low budget foreign picture the visual effects are extremely good. While some of them are very obvious, they work with the charm of the movie. Now the ball is a weapon at the feet of a Shaolin master and he/she can manipulate it anyway they like. So we know have astonishing flying kicks, gravity defying headers and shots that literally burn the back of the net but that is not all when Evil Team starts bringing black magic into the equation. Now the gloves are off and our heroes will have to show great bouncebackability if they are ever going to win the game.

The outrageous plot and mad football would be nothing without some great performances from the cast. As well as writing and directing the film, Stephen Chow also stars as Sing, the Shaolin master with a gift for kicking the ball extremely hard. As the hero of the piece it is up to him to unite the team and his brothers to gain victory over Evil Team. He shows a real gift for comedy and the more physical side of the role, much in the same vein as Jackie Chan. Man Tat Ng is also good as former soccer legend Golden Leg. This is a man who had everything taken away from him and forced to live in the shadow of his former teammate and now manager of Evil Team. The rest of the cast are also good. Vicki Zhao is Sing's love interest and a dumpling cook with control skills that would put Ronaldinho to shame. Yut Fei Wong, Kwok Kuen Chan, Lam Chi Chung and Chi-Sing Lam are also good as Sing's gifted but slightly stupid brothers who turn their unique Shaolin skills in real footballing gifts.

At the end of the day Shaolin Soccer sets its stall out very early by setting itself up as a comedic sports movie that never takes itself seriously. With over the top action sequences and classic confrontations, the movie is a riot for all fans of the beautiful game and will have them chanting at the screen as their heroes head towards goal. Football is a funny old game but you have never seen it like this before.

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