Story of a success
Stephen
Chow, Chow Sing Chi, is the guy who made a success of this project. He was and still is
the number one clown and the funniest actor in HK screens for ages. He was sharing the box
office favours with another actor, much more famous in the West, Jackie Chan. Stephen Chow
was a movie freak, performing in tens of movies in a few years time. He became the King of
'Moleitau', i.e. non-sensical comedies. After the economic crisis that has stricken HK,
harming badly the local cinema industry, and after Chow did so much copy cats of his own
successes, one could think that the great Chow Sing Chi was gone forever. Indeed, the end
of the Nineties was very quiet for him. He made, however, two excellent movies, i.e. God
Of Cookery and King Of Comedy, and then nothing. No more 'Moleitau' movies for
two years. On top of that Chow had trouble to produce and to finish off Shaolin Soccer.
The female lead kept changing all the time for instance.
Chow understood perfectly that to
attract the local audience, a movie had to be able to compete with the high production
values set up by international and in particular American standards. He got that it was
better to take his time rather than to be sloppy. With an impressive budget of US$ 10
Millions (a massive budget for the local cinema), Chow hired the Centro Digital company,
the FX house responsible for the CGI effects in Stormriders. He decided as well to
hire Ching Siu Tung, one of the most gifted
action director from HK (A Chinese Ghost Story, Dragon Inn, A Better Tomorrow 2…).
Ching Siu Tung was then in charge of the spectacular football game sequences, one of the
most important attractions of the movie. With an excellent cast, a nice music score and a
rather conventional but effective direction, Shaolin Soccer is like the typical
great HK movie and has a great production value that enhances considerably its appeal.
This movie attracted more people as well thanks to its
universal theme: the football. Such theme has never really inspired film directors. But
the fantastic idea was to associate kung fu and a cartoon style to football. Stephen Chow
managed therefore to attract a worldwide audience.
Shaolin Soccer within
Chow's career
The success of Shaolin Soccer isn't due to luck or fate. The Chow's two previous
features were of the same kind. After chain movie-making, Stephen Chow has started to
re-think of his way to make movies and has found a new formula with God Of Cookery
(1997). It is exactly the same type of movie as Shaolin Soccer, but this one
doesn't take place in a football pitch but a kitchen!
The Chow's new formula basically consists in not inducing
laughers at all cost but in developing the dramatic elements of the story. Moreover, Chow
has become more and more critical towards the Chinese society in general and its venality
in particular since the God Of Cookery. In 1999 he directed King Of Comedy
where he criticised the local cinema industry. The drama was more present and even
overtook the usual comedy aspect of Chow Sing Chi films. The characters showed their inner
torments. They were more human than in any other 'Moleitau' movies he had made so far. Two
years later, Stephen Chow is back with a vengeance and with less tortured characters. Shaolin
Soccer is therefore less cruel than King Of Comedy, less subtle than God Of
Cookery, but it has profited from the experience of Actor-director Chow. He created
for instance very touching but amusing characters.
The martial arts in Shaolin
Soccer
Nowadays, martial arts are very trendy but still very badly known and understood by the
western audience. There are even parodies (e.g. the poor Kung Pow), even if the
audience doesn't always have a clue about the true values of martial arts. Kung Fu films
hide behind fights very old historical and cinematographic traditions.
The narrative pattern of a traditional martial arts movie
is typical. A hero is defeated by an enemy and becomes a 'fallen hero'. This is the case
indeed of Fong (Ng Man Tat) in Shaolin Soccer, he is an ex-football player with a
powerful kick. He was humiliated by his enemy a while ago and he became the manager of the
Shaolin team. He will find a way to get his honour back with martial arts and through
football. The hero will fight against his despicable nemesis and he will win thanks to his
righteousness and new martial art skills. The Shaolin team takes on this second part of
the typical pattern. A lot of martial art movies use the pattern. For instance, the Snake
In The Eagle Shadow by Yuen Woo Ping and with Jackie Chan is typical and can be easily
compared to Shaolin Soccer.
Some could state that such recurrent pattern proves the lack of originality of Kung Fu
features. Sure, but the interest and appeal of the martial art cinema doesn't rely on its
narrative originality. What is important is the way to depict the different stages that
build the typical Kung Fun movie narration. And as for Shaolin Soccer, to mix Kung
Fu to football was a rather original choice!
The martial
art virtues are extolled in Shaolin Soccer through various quotations of famous
Kung Fu movies and icons. The goalkeeper of the Shaolin team obviously refers to Bruce
Lee, one of Chow's idol (with the Game Of Death yellow pyjama). Chow Sing Chi has
always managed to play tributes to Bruce Lee all along his acting-directing-scriptwriting
career.
The sequence with Chow's knackered sneakers refers as well
to a beautiful Kung Fu feature: Disciples Of Death (1974) by Chan Cheh, re-made as The
Barefoot Kid by Johnnie To in 1993. In this classic from the seventies, a gifted
martial artist was used and abused by a powerful man in order to harm his rival. Thanks to
his fighting skills, he exchanges his old shoes for new ones. Unfortunately, he fought one
more time and got killed.
Shaolin
Soccer develops a wider point of view on martial arts than the one from Jet Li's
movies in Hollywood for instance. As Stephen Chow said in Shaolin Soccer,
"Kung Fu is not only a weapon to fight. It is as well a way of life, of
thinking". 'Kung Fu' roughly means in Chinese mastery and control. From there, you
can have an excellent Kung Fu in dance or cookery. Usually, one think that a Kung Fu flick
is packed with fights. But the everyday activities are undertaken following the martial
art philosophy. In Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu is therefore used to do some sport, to
cook (the Tai Chi style), to avoid to slide on a banana skin…
The best asset of Shaolin Soccer was to give a new
point of view of the tradition of Kung Fu films but without betraying the spirit of
martial arts. This fun and cool HK feature has revealed a genuine respect for a noble
conception of pop cinema.
