Starring Stephen Chow, Ng Mang-tat, Vicki Zhao, Patrick Tse
Director Stephen Chow, Lee Lik-chi
Category IIB
Without doubt the funniest Cantonese comedy since the handover, Shaolin Soccer is Stephen Chow's best since Fight Back To School.
In addition to being the lead actor (below), he is producer, co-director (with Lee Lik-chi) and co-writer (with Tsang Kan-cheung), so it is very much his show. Over one year in the making (compared to his 'golden age' of the early 1990s when he seemingly churned out a movie a month, some of them modern classics), the time was well spent. The comedy situations grow naturally out of the story, which freshly combines traditional Chinese practices with cutting-edge technology. The computer special effects are among the most inventive in Hong Kong cinema, their wizardry all the more amazing in that they are natural adjuncts of the comedy rather than mere showpieces. The action choreography by Ching Siu-tung is also more than first rate.
Chow is ideally suited to the role of a Shaolin monk who uses soccer to spread the word. Shot entirely on the mainland, he is once again the innocent in the big city (Shanghai, this time), not so dissimilar from the country bumpkins he played in two of his best pictures, All For The Winner (1990) and Legend Of The Dragon (1991). His faith, optimism, and superhuman kung fu expertise lead him and his ragtag band of misfit-but-powerful fellow monks to the top echelons of Chinese football.