Accent on America

The voice of comedy king Stephen Chiau Sing-chi has been dubbed on to the English version of his hit comedy Shaolin Soccer.

Chiau, not known for his English-language ability, agreed to put his own voice to the movie to cater to the subtitle-intolerant United States market. The film (pictured above) has also been slashed by 33 minutes to 87 minutes, presumably to accommodate audiences with short attention spans.

However, no one at Chiau's production company, The Stars Overseas, was able to comment on the cuts as they said they hadn't seen the US version, which is owned by Miramax. No US release date has been confirmed.

The Stars Overseas was also unable to confirm that some of the Cantonese songs have been replaced by rap for the US version.

A French-speaking version has been made for the film's opening in France in August. We're pretty sure it's not Chiau's voice in that one.