THERE'S A LITTLE BIT of every underdog sports comedy you've ever seen in "Shaolin Soccer," including each iteration of the "Air Bud" franchise (assuming you've been so unlucky to have seen one or more of these essentially identical movies about a preternaturally athletic pooch). And yet, despite superficial similarities to "The Bad News Bears," "The Mighty Ducks" and their ilk, "Shaolin Soccer" looks like nothing that has come before it, with the possible exception of "The Matrix," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Spider-Man" all rolled up in a big, bouncing ball.
And have I mentioned that it's funny as heck?
Chop-socky soccer: Stephen Chow, truly on the ball as director, producer, writer, actor and stuntman in "Shaolin Soccer."
(Miramax Films)
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Written, directed, produced and edited by popular Hong Kong comedian Stephen Chow, "Shaolin Soccer" starts with the story of Fung (Man Tat Ng), a washed-up soccer star once known as Golden Leg who finds redemption years after being forced by his coach to blow a game, suffering a career-ending injury in the process.
Such redemption comes only when Fung stumbles upon Sing (Chow, who acts in the film and performs his own stunts), an itinerant instructor in the ancient art of shaolin, a type of kung fu that Sing believes, if put into practice in daily life, could revolutionize the way people perform such mundane tasks as parking their cars, trimming hedges and recovering from stepping on a banana peel.
Despite his misgivings, it occurs to Fung that Sing and his five inept-looking brothers -- none of whom knows the first thing about passing, dribbling, holding or shooting, but each of whom will be revealed to have mad (and I mean insane) kung fu skills -- might just be the raw material Fung needs to coach his way back into the Supercup soccer championship.
Sound familiar?
Better yet, the soccer club Fung has to beat is one with the ominous name of Team Evil, a black-uniformed cadre of dirty-playing devils whose appearance on the field is accompanied by ominous CGI clouds and whose coach (Patrick Tse) is the very man who arranged for Fung's maiming way back when. Let the games begin [cue sound of maniacal cackling].
And begin they do. After a couple of false and extremely funny starts during training, Team Shaolin limps into the tournament, winning its first game . . . 40 to zip. Yes, this in a sport where 3 to 2 is considered a high score. Needless to say, the team's march toward the playoffs will be inexorable -- until, of course, something goes wrong.
There is nothing about the plot of "Shaolin Soccer" you haven't seen before, including Sing's side romance with a sweet-bun-making kung fu expert (Vicki Zhao). That being said, it's how these familiar ingredients (pluck, determination, the love of a good woman, etc.) have been packaged that dazzles and delights, with a parade of cartoonish digital effects, over-the-top wire stunt work, slo-mo, fast-mo, stereoscopic freeze, a dance number and sight gags riffing on everything from "Jurassic Park" to "Saving Private Ryan."
Best of all, Chow knows enough not to take his own movie too seriously, with the wickedest ribbing of all reserved for the cliches of the martial-arts film.
This is, however, no "Kung Pow: Enter the Fist." Chow's humor is too smart, and his respect too great for his source material. "Shaolin Soccer" really loves what it mocks, after all, and that grandly goofy affection -- nay, joy -- for all things chop socky is purely, utterly contagious.
SHAOLIN SOCCER (PG-13, 87 minutes) -- Contains slapstick action violence. In Cantonese with subtitles. At Landmark's E Street Cinema.
