Recent East Asian Cinema #6: Shaolin Soccer.

Welcome to the sixth of seven posts that will detail East Asian cinema, giving genre history leading up to a recent movie which will be reviewed! I hope you enjoy the series. For more information or previous entries, check the posts below this one.

--------------

Genre: Hong Kong Action Cinema/Comedy.

History: In yesterday’s history lesson, I discussed the early history of Hong Kong Action Cinema. By the time I got to the 1990s, I mentioned that these movies went into a slump, and two types of movies brought them out of it. The first was the rebirth of the wuxia film, AKA the type of film that Jet Li would make. The other type that helped get Hong Kong out of a slump took the other route, with the types of movies Jackie Chan would make.

Jackie Chan really brought into the mainstream the kung fu comedy with his slapstick humor and realistic stunts. However, the man to help bring Hong Kong out of its slump was not Jackie Chan, but a man named Stephen Chow. Stephen Chow is a comedian, but a lot of his jokes dealt with Chinese culture, meaning that the Western World wouldn’t have understood a lot of his material. Thus, his earlier films went mostly unrecognized internationally. However, he then created a movie by the name of Shaolin Soccer, which was not only an international hit, but became the best selling movie in China at the time. That title would only be succeeded by Stephen Chow’s next movie, Kung Fu Hustle. So now we’re going to focus on the kung fu comedy with Shaolin Soccer.

Shaolin Soccer (2001).

Country of Origin: China/Hong Kong.

Original Title: Siu lam juk kau.

Director: Stephen Chow.

The movie is about a former Shaolin monk, Sing (Stephen Chow), now basically living off the street, who wants to bring Shaolin Kung Fu to the masses, as he believes it will make all lives easier. But when former soccer star Fung (Ng Man Tat) is fired by his evil brother, Hung (Patrick Tse Yin), he stumbles upon down-and-out Sing on the street and realizes that he has a Mighty Steel Leg that could work wonders in soccer. So Sing tries to get together his former monk brothers, all with special abilities of their own, to put together a Shaolin soccer team. The only thing in their way is Hung’s Team Evil, who they must beat in order to win the competition.

This movie is crazy, wacky, and random. There’s even a random dance number (which I’ve included in my Top 10 Random Dance Scenes) that’s bizarre, but hilarious. The movie is funny and over-the-top, and there really isn’t much to say about it. It’s basically a parody on both wuxia and sports comedy.

The special effects are pretty good, especially within the final soccer match. The story is fun, the actors/actresses have good comedic timing, and the movie is all around plain good fun. That’s the only real way to describe it. There’s really not much else to say about it, really, so I’ll leave it at this rather short review.

A Keanu 'Whoa'

Top 10 Random Dance Scenes.

I know I just posted up my review of Charlie Bartlett, but I really want to post this, as well, so you get a twofer tonight.

-----

Have you ever been watching a movie, a movie that was neither a musical nor related to dancing whatsoever, and suddenly, as if out of nowhere, one or more characters on the screen suddenly burst out into dance and/or song? If done right, those random dance scenes can be funny and entertaining. If done wrong, you have Spider-Man 3. But this article is going to concentrate on 10 of the more memorable random dance and/or song moments from film. The further down the list we get, the more random and enjoyable the scenes are.

10. American Wedding

Scene: Looking for a dressmaker named Leslie, Stiffler accidentally insults one of Leslie’s friends. In order to prove himself worthy, Stiffler decides to have a dance-off against a large gay man in a gay bar (not all of the posted videos are this long, either... I just couldn't find a shorter version).

9. Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure

Scene: After accidentally stumbling into a private biker bar, Pee-Wee Herman tries to prove himself (and keep from getting beaten up) by dancing on the bar.

8. Beetlejuice

Scene: Trying to get their house rid of annoying new owners, a ghost couple possesses the new family and friends at dinner, making them lip sync and dance.

7. Billy Madison

Scene: Feeling sorry for himself, Billy gets beaten up by his girlfriend, mulls over his life, and breaks out into song/dance.

6. The Breakfast Club

Scene: The kids are bored; they put in some music and just dance away in the library.

5. Shaolin Soccer

Scene: For no real apparent reason whatsoever, a bunch of people just start going all Thriller.

4. Austin Powers in GoldMember

Scene: The opening credits for the movie. After the fake opening with a bunch of Hollywood stars, Austin talks to Steven Spielberg and then breaks out into a long dance number which involves a back-flipping Spielberg and a head-exploding Britney Spears.

3. Napoleon Dynamite

Scene: When it looks like all hope is lost for best friend Pedro to win over the crowd and become class president, Napoleon walks out on stage and shows everyone his sweet dance skills.

2. The Mask

Scene: There are actually two in this movie, but the one I’m focusing on is Cuban Pete. To try and avoid getting arrested, The Mask turns the entire street into a full song and dance, including a conga line.

1. Clerks 2

Scene: Dante doesn’t know how to dance, so he gets a little help from Rosario Dawson’s boo… I mean, her character…. Yeah. Anyway, everybody in Mooby’s gets in the dancing mood and joins in.

Honorable Mention:

- MirrorMask, when Helena is being transformed by the robot women into Dark Helena and the women are singing and dancing a cover of “Close to You” as they do it. That scene is just too trippy weird not to mention.