Hey folks, Harry here with a Comic Con attendee that took in the Miramax edit of SHAOLIN SOCCER at the con, and was exposed to the Miramax cut first. He then bought the Hong Kong edit at the convention and came away prefering the Miramax edit. I can't really judge, because I haven't seen Miramax's edit, but I can't imagine preferring it, the examples he cites below never gave me any problems with the subtitle print. Anyways, here ya go...
Hi Harry:
Mpyre here- I did a review of Battle Royale for you when the director screened it for the first time in LA's Egyptian theater about 2 years ago.
I caught the screening of Miramax's cut of Shaolin Soccer at the Comic Con. My buddies had passes for both Shaolin and XXX but I pleaded with them to pass up the VD for Shaolin Soccer. This was our first time viewing Stephen Chow's film and I was very skeptical given Miramax's track record with Mononoke. Also, I've had a bad taste in my mouth from the hip-hopping of Hong Kong martial arts flicks that all US studios seem to be guilty of.
To put it in simple terms: Miramax has a comedic nuclear weapon on their hands. We had a blast watching Shaolin Soccer and it's puzzling how a studio can hide such a wonderful instant classic.
The dubbing had me cringing at first. Given the anything-goes tone of the film, it was at first hard to dive into the English voice work since it borders on stereotypical satire of Asian accents--I kept wondering if they were overdoing the lines on purpose and if it was meant to be in that tone. All of those doubts melted away ten minutes into Shaolin Soccer when the crazy energy of the film reveals itself in Stephen Chow's first scene explaining the Shaolin way of life.
From then on, I was immersed in pure joy, along with the packed Comic Con audience, watching the most hilarious comedy I've seen in years (or ever). I made the mistake of not wearing contacts that night--I had to continuously remove my glasses to wipe away streams of tears from laughing my ass off. Looking at the audience left and right of me, I felt like I was on a Star Tours ride since everyone kept rocking forward on their seats in laughter.
The special effects are really special--you get the sense that the artists behind many great scenes are fans of comic books, action films and even videogames. An example of this is in some of the scenes with the "Evil Team"--the players had wispy clouds of darkness around them like a Final Fantasy RPG and their power reveals itself in the form of an evil, satanic face. At heart, the movie plays off like a great superhero movie or fighting game flick--imagine seeing a Street Fighter game in real motion with fireballs or telekenetic blasts.
One of Shaolin Soccer's endearing features is the members of the main soccer team. Part of the joy of the film is getting to know each team member (something I wouldn't want to spoil here). It's like watching the perfect mix of character like Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai", the original "Star Wars" trilogy crew or the classic team from "The Five Deadly Venoms." I loved the fact that the heroes looked like characters from all walks of life--fat, thin, old, crazy. Nice to see faces on the big screen with big hearts--not pretty-boy jawlines and boy band hairdos.
I even became skeptical near the finale if Shaolin Soccer could continue such an awesome string of great comedy. The final act didn't disappoint at all and some of the special effects were earth-shaking.
After the flick, we immediately called everyone we knew and raved about it. The next day, we hit the video dealers at the con for a DVD copy of the Hong Kong version. You could hear everyone talking about the screening or asking about the movie. Luckily, we found some copies for $20 but most of the dealers were sold out.
Before writing this review, I watched the original cut on DVD without the dubbing and in a strange way, I prefer the Miramax version. The Miramax translation changes some jokes to make them easier for a Western audience. An example of this is when a character refers to "Judo" in the dubbed cut which got a big laugh. On the original version, the translation refers to a Kung Fu technique that most Western viewers would miss. Heck, I took six years of Kung Fu and even I did not know what the character was referring to--I only remembered from the screening that the term he mentioned was a martial arts discipline. Also, it's a strain reading the subtitles and following the frenetic action on the screen. I found myself ignoring the subtitles on some of the rapid-fire sequences.
Shaolin Soccer deserves to be a huge hit with a big following but I'm afraid Miramax will throw this one out there with no support. "Iron Monkey" was a great flick but it was gone from the multiplexes in a heartbeat...and don't get me started on Mononoke's slaughter on its release. Whatever happens at the box officethis film will surely find an audience that will click to its wonderful take on comedy.
After meeting and experiencing the Shaolin Soccer team on the big screen, I'm a fan for life. This will be a big present for US moviegoers when it's finally released.
Mpyre
