‘Shaolin Soccer’: Stephen Chow’s incredible impact on sports comedy
The comedy genre is naturally a silly affair, but sports comedy is on a whole other level. The likes of Dodgeball, Happy Gilmore and Talladega Nights instantly spring to mind when thinking of the best sports comedies, but there’s another classic from the early 2000s that made a serious impact on the genre with its unique take.
Stephen Chow’s 2001 Hong Kong sports comedy Shaolin Soccer remains a truly memorable and hilarious piece of cinema and a genuine cultural phenomenon that captured the spirit and generally buffoonery of the turn of the new millennium. Blending martial arts, football and comedy in healthy doses while throwing in shades of Shaolin philosophy, Chow’s film transcended the motifs of sports comedy and became an iconic work of entertainment in its own right.
Chow himself plays Sing, a former Shaolin monk who struggles to teach kung fu to anyone because of his poverty. After coming into contact with a former Hong Kong football star, Sing reunites with five of his Shaolin brothers one year after their master’s death to promote the teachings of kung fu via football.
The newly assembled team are initially beaten on the field, but after awakening their kung-fu powers, they become an unbeatable team of fearsome, quick-footed warriors. As expected of a Hong Kong martial arts flick, Shaolin Soccer possesses excellent choreography that matches the former brilliance of Bruce Lee and John Woo, bringing humble matches of football to new artistic and combative heights.
Chow’s film is a spectacle despite its admittedly silly premise. Gravity-defying leaps and kicks and dazzling finishing moves left audiences’ mouths agape with their sheer audacity. However, Shaolin Soccer isn’t just a spectacle alone because it manages to weave a narrative of brotherhood, teamwork and the importance of believing in oneself, much in the way that Dodgeball would just a few years later.
When Sing’s team face off against other groups of increasingly impressive footballers, they are drawn together by a collective spirit, tapping into the principles of Shaolin philosophy. In that light, Chow’s movie managed to transcend its comic realms by delivering a genuinely moving narrative whilst still possessing all the charm of the comedy genre and all the hard-hitting moments of our favourite action films.
Moving beyond the film as a memorable piece of entertainment, though, Shaolin Soccer also captured the hearts and attention of audiences in its native Hong Kong, wider Asia and on the international circuit, which Chow had indeed been hoping for. He once told IGN, “I can’t rely on the local market because it’s too small, so since Shaolin Soccer, it’s always my ambition to go international.”
The philosophy of Shaolin was understood more or less by Asian viewers while it was treated with an exotic intrigue in the Western world, where the footballing facet of the movie was familiar. In that light, Chow’s film was widely influential in fusing global cultures and breaking down barriers between Eastern and Western societies.
Three years after Shaolin Soccer, Chow would make further strides in martial arts action comedy with Kung Fu Hustle, but it was his 2001 film that left a deep impression on the future of sporting movies with a comic edge. By combining hard-hitting action, emotive storytelling and moments of downright hilarity, Chow transcended the sports genre and created a piece of cinema with a cultural legacy all of its own.
