Well, when making this video, I also went through quite an adventure. I got sick for a week, narrowly avoiding disaster by recording the narration one day before losing my voice. And then I spent 2 straight days uploading 18 versions of this video due to how strict this platform has gotten. Hopefully the video is entertaining and worth the effort. Anyway, thank you for our patrons for keeping us afloat, and thanks Squarespace for sponsoring the video.

@Gfriend_Buddy99

9 ай бұрын

Its awesome.... Thank you for your hardwork.

@theJACK__

9 ай бұрын

all yer videos are great!

@phonecallsarejustoverquali1556

9 ай бұрын

Hope you get your voice back if you haven't already. All the best.

@MasterT333

9 ай бұрын

Amazing video! So happy someone made a video with so many of the references that are even missed by Chinese people. You might only learn about some of these if you go through the comments in a reaction video. It must have taken a lot of research and effort. Thanks for the hard work!

@bornanagaming3329

9 ай бұрын

Please do Millennium Actress and its many references!

That was more wholesome than I could imagine. The details behind the scenes made the movie more unique and endearing.

@recoil53

9 ай бұрын

It's great to see somebody give credit to all those who made them a success instead of just leaving them behind.

@THEAWESOMEGHOST

9 ай бұрын

100% I didn’t realize the silly tsubasa reference was a love letter

@Quast

8 ай бұрын

Couldn't have said it any better. :)

A few other notes about Shaolin Soccer: 1. The original Hong Kong DVD features the theatrical cut, but extended scenes can be accessed when an icon appears on the screen: - Sing's dance number before Mui's boss scares everyone off and Sing winks at Mui with the last piece of mantou. - An extended scene of Mui after her makeover, where she has a heated argument with her boss during the Team Shaolin's drinking party. - All of the bloopers and outtakes, plus a different ending theme. 2. The original Hong Kong Video CD release is the "director's cut", with all of the scenes above seamlessly included. 3. Sing and Iron Head's song at the bar uses the melody of the Mamas & the Papas' 1965 song "California Dreamin'". 4. Mui's makeover is a parody of Hong Kong actress Anita Mui, based on her appearance during the '80s. 5. The scene where Iron Head counters a flying headbutt from a Team Evil member references Fight Club, which uses the same effect of blowing air in the mouth when Edward Norton's character attempts to shoot himself.

@SiPakRubah

9 ай бұрын

Lmao, I didn't realise the shaolin singing was based from California Dreamin' song, how I didn't realise that

@king0elizabeth

9 ай бұрын

Wow, number 4 finally makes sense to me now after 20 years. I always had a feeling about it but I couldn't realise it.

@MasterT333

9 ай бұрын

And the random phone call scene to say I love you, was a parody of a hong kong nokia cell phone commercial

@thenatural1sttrpg

9 ай бұрын

I had a double sided dvd copy of the movie with the original cut and theatrical on the other side. The original cut is in my opinion pretty great. The story structure was better and there were more comedic moments.

@sutejasastra

9 ай бұрын

the movie just keep on giving trivias

RIP, uncle Tat. He was a spectacular actor!

This is one of my favorite movies, but as someone that doesn't speak Cantonese or Mandarin, I feel like I was missing a lot of the jokes and references. Thank you for filling in some of those gaps, I have a newfound appreciation for Shaolin Soccer ❤⚽☯

@Rando1975

9 ай бұрын

That's why I really like when Frank Djeng does audio commentaries on kung fu films. He explains some of the slang and humor that non Chinese speaking wouldn't understand.

@imnikshay

5 ай бұрын

It was perfectly dubbed in my country India 🇮🇳🥰🥰

@charlesfurfur

5 ай бұрын

Not just the jokes. Many movie easter eggs and reference too.

I remember falling in love with this movie as a teenager. It was my first contact with Stephen Chow. Here it was called "Kung Fu futebol clube" (which is the correct name for the sport, no World Cup, no Opinion) and me, my friends and lots of people I know felt a very deep connection to it. Even with all the cultural diferences between China and Brazil, the concept we called "futebol da vázea" which takes us to a nostalgic times where clubs were smaller, we had lots of empty blocks covered in grass which we turned into futebol areas for the local communities is somthing very nostalgic and hold dear to our collective conscious. The fact that Kung Fu Futebol Clube subverts a lot of tropes from more "serious" old Kung Fu movies adds the final touch for it to be so loved.

As a Nigerian growing up, Hong Kong cinema and Bollywood were as popular as movies from the US and Europe. I am grateful everyday for the blessing I received without even realising. Stephen Chow is a don.

@prajwaljayaraj5887

9 ай бұрын

As an Indian, Stephen Chow is the most prominent name in Indian culture when it comes to Hong Kong cinema, we all grew up watching Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer as kids. They're very beloved here.

@auldthymer

9 ай бұрын

I only know Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, but they are really great movies! It's time for me to see some more.

@AL-jg4pr

9 ай бұрын

Blessed to be in the age where we have access to everything

@zigowl1193

9 ай бұрын

@@AL-jg4pr I am Gen X. We got everything on from local video clubs. Those local shop owners were ingenious, how they sourced movies from everywhere. You could get just about anything if you asked and were ready to give them a few weeks to track it down. Ahh, the summers of my youth.

@0m13

8 ай бұрын

As an Indian who grew up on (old school) Wuxia dramas, HK action movies and obviously the magnificent comedic talent of Chow, I was really touched by this review, and felt slightly proud that I could understand most of the references. I am so happy to see this comment from you.

Fun Fact: Puma is the one of the sponsor of this movie, You can see the logo on all the clothes and shoes, that's why you see the Puma Kamehameha shoot.

The prologue, where Golden Leg bullies his teammate never appeared on my DVD copy. This changes everything about the motive of Golden Leg's character.

And Uncle Tat definitely deserved the spotlight. He's truly an incredible actor. RIP.

Stephen Chow is truly King of Comedy. Nothing could beat the comedy from his movies 🤣🤣

@raja-jl9os

5 ай бұрын

His movies always look cool not cringe

I loved this movie. Later on I was browsing Netflix and came across one of the international releases, which re-edited the movie to have less of the weirder comedic bits, which I absolutely hated. It removed the original music from the song at Mui's stall, it drastically toned down the makeover scene, and so on. Even though I'm not from Hong Kong, nor do I speak Cantonese, I love how original the movie is compared to other comedies that make it to global success.

@AccentedCinema

9 ай бұрын

There are quite a few versions floating around. I think the Netflix version is the Miramax release, which gutted out 20 minutes of the movie. It's absolutely the worst one. The version on Amazon is, I think, the US theatrical version, which is almost identical to the original edit, except all the important Chinese text has been changed to English using VFX. It's honestly kinda surreal to look at. There is the Taiwan dub which does not distinguish between Mui's Mandarin and everyone else's Cantonese. And I think the US DVD release added a few scenes back into the movie.

@GameFuMaster

9 ай бұрын

@@AccentedCinema is there a reason why Miramax had to remove those scenes?

@tinlunlau1

9 ай бұрын

​@@GameFuMasterbecause Miramax exec Harvey Weinstein assumed everyone is not smart enough to catch cultural references. Thank god he's in prison for all his sexual misconduct. I would also like to believe he's being jailed for his crimes against Asian cinema but one could only wish. 😂

@recoil53

9 ай бұрын

@@GameFuMaster I don't know if it is the reason for this movie, but Miramax does it a lot with Chinese movies because they want to Americanize the movie. They think their edits will be more digestible for the US audience. It ends up being a terrible mix - fans hate it and in part because of the bad or meh reviews the mainstream audiences don't bother.

@ShengProductions

9 ай бұрын

@@GameFuMaster Miramax is infamous for editing any chinese (asian) movie. Be it a Jackie Chan, Jet Li (Hero), every movie needed to be changed.

One of the best, if not the best Stephen Chow movie ive watched, glad to see it being talked about here as well. Definitely deserves to be watched atleast once by everyone. Also, theres a new shaolin soccer movie being made???

@yougehaoming

9 ай бұрын

i think so, womens version or something

The funny thing is as happen to Arnold where they put Devil in the title of movie he is in in Chinese. In Thailand, almost every movie that Stephen Chow play have "คนเล็ก" (Lit. trans: small man) in the title. This also happen to many actor/actress either west or east. Even Arnold has the nickname "คนเหล็ก" (Lit. trans: metal man) in every movie he in in Thai, especially The Terminator Films.

In 2003, in my first month of high school Chinese class, my Hong-Kong-raised Mandarin teacher began showing us Chinese-langage films every month. This was the first one he showed us, and it will honestly forever hold a special place in my heart. Thank you for helping me bring my understanding of it full circle

It won't be a stephen chow movie without "flower". Man, this really hits deep. We will never see another movie like stephen chow's movies. Him and uncle tat was such an iconic duo.

This movie already holds a special place in my heart from childhood, understanding the refrences just made me love it even more. Thank you for your hard work.

What's even more amazing to me is that I saw the movie and loved it without knowing any of that! Being able to make a movie that speaks to people in and out of the know is awesome

@Linkwii64

8 ай бұрын

You need to watch Stephen Chow's other movie. Every movie he made has a comedy way of making you laugh, sad, and cheers.

@zeikjt

8 ай бұрын

@@Linkwii64 I have seen more of them since then! Saw Kung Fu Hustle first, went back and saw Shaolin Soccer, then started watching them as they came out like CJ7, his Journey to the West, The Mermaid. Still gotta go back and watch the pre-Shaolin Soccer movies for sure.

The scene in 11:32 is a parody of an ad starring Leon Lai back in the mid 90s to early 2000's. The original ad series featuring various mobile phones were so memorable that anyone in Hong Kong at that time would've known the reference. They were also memorable for being 1-2 minute long ads that runs during ad-breaks in prime time TV, which was ridiculous compared to the usual 20-30 second ads.

Damn I didn't know Mui spoke Mandarin while everyone spoke Cantonese... That's a great detail and adds a lot of character to both Mui and Sing for putting in the effort to communicate

Amazing that Danny Chan played both Lighting Hands and Brother Sum! Been watching Stephen Chow films forever. He really let's the actors show amazing range. Gonna watch a few this week and reminisce. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

@aidanjanemcintosh6919

8 ай бұрын

I don't know if this was true, but Danny Chan played more movies as Bruce Lee than Bruce Lee himself lol

I didn't know Mui spoke Mandarin while the other characters spoke Cantonese! That and the fact Sing tries to speak her in Mandarin make this wholesome n_n I watched this movie with my brother, I think, I was in high-school, and I just loved how absurd was all. But I think this movie is not so known here in Costa Rica...

My mom bought a "DVD" collection of all the Stephen Chow movies since we had only ever rented the VHS versions. I like to think it made a positive impact on my childhood lol.

I've been looking forward to you reviewing this movie ever since I first subscribed to you, and despite my high expectations now that I've gotten accustomed to your work, I still find myself impressed at how you've exceeded them. Thank you for doing this amazing film justice.

Another important piece of thing is that Tai chi is a soft style. It means it always redirects power rather than trying to overpower it. That's why she was able to be the goalkeeper. The other guys' kung fu styles are hard styles, which do the overpowering opponent. What they didn't manage to do.

@richardsherman2286

2 ай бұрын

Thanks for your incredible insight. 😅

You are spot on about Man Tat. Like you I have grown up watching Stephen Chow comedies and always seen them together. At the end of Shaolin Soccer, when the trophy was presented, I didn't see them as characters of the film, but as real life comrades.

Fun Fact: In order to appear as if her head was shaved, Wei Zhao had to sit in the makeup chair for eight to ten hours each day.

RIP Uncle Ng Man Tat. The best dynamic duo of all time.

You know what is pure and sweet? This video! Thank you!

Love when you talk about the Stephen Chow movies. They’re always so interconnected. It reminds me of the scene from Night is Short, Walk on Girl when the god of used book fairs explains why no book is isolated

I love when you make Stephen Chow appreciation videos❤

Incredible references I would have never known. The Cantonese/Mandarin is so sweet and explaining the dance in Kungfu Hustle is so great. Fantastic video!

I was in high school when I watched this movie for the first time. It was a bootleg without subtitles. Since we do not speak cantonese or mandarin we started riffing at the plot parts. We were familiar with Captain Tsubasa at least. It was a ton of fun.

Been needing this for years. I was introduced to the film dubbed in English for the Tribeca Film Festival, 2001 I believe. All these references other than Captain Tsubasa went over my head all these years.

This is the movie I watched the most. After my mom got us the VCD, I put it on almost every day after school as I was having lunch. It was also always shown on TV during Lunar New Year. I can never get bored of it. This movie is also the last time we see Stephen Chow and Uncle Tat together, which makes me treasure it even more.

Love learning insight into the meaning and history of the film. Appreciate you taking time to go in depth and sharing all these details.

Another great deep dive & I appreciate the kudos for Uncle Tat 🤍 Stephen and Uncle Tat are the textbook definition of dynamic duo. Stephen absolutely wouldn't be where he is today without him and I was truly saddened by his passing. They were both such a core part of my childhood.

This movie blew my mind when I first saw it! Knowing these references has now given it a new level of appreciation for me. Thanks for making this video!

I just want to thank you for helping me have a whole new appreciation for this film. Growing up as a young Aussie lad in a poor neighbourhood I always connected with this movie amd loved it foundly but to now know so much more about it I couldn't thank you enough

This a beautiful tribute to Stephen Chow and one of my childhood films

I love this movie. It was so wholesome that it left me grinning and pacing my living room floor. I have only seen it once but never forgotten it

После этого видео я ещё больше полюбил китайскую культуру. Хорошая работа, ACCENTEDCINEMA

I saw a sub of this at a Canadian Japanese cultural festival about 20 years ago. A lot of the symbolism of the characters names or characters speaking mandarin never came through. Thank you so much for pointing them out it makes this movie even more special!

What a great breakdown of references and tribute to this movie. I'm going to watch this again with my parents.

I have absolutely loved this movie from first viewing, and this video gives me an even greater appreciation for it. Sincerely, thank you for putting this together, I never would have known any of these finer cultural details without you.

WELL DONE! this has been one of my favorite movies growing-up in the Philippines! :) My siblings and I would recreate the scenes.

@daze4907

8 ай бұрын

I’m glad the scene recreations were a cross cultural experience :)

You've added so much to my understanding of this great film. 感謝感謝

I've seen this movie before, but I never would have known about the love song and Cantonese/Mandarin references if I hadn't seen this. Thanks for the great video!

This will probably remain my favorite movie of all time. I always loved the release with all the bloopers and extended scenes worked in.

Thanks for this! I caught a few of the references, but as a westerner who has only seen a few of the previous films, and has pretty much no knowledge of things like Mandarin language with accents, those were lost on me until you shined the light!

I literally was brought to tears by this video. Amazing.

This and Kung Fu hustle were the biggest hits in Russia, people loved the movies, they were so much fun, Great essay!!❤COYG!😜

@jjhaya

9 ай бұрын

I hope you watched his video about references in Kung Fu Hustle 😊. I was actually confused because I thought he reuploaded this video but turned out I was thinking of the Kung Fu Hustle one and this is a new one about Shaolin Soccer 😅 .

It's been far too long since I've seen this. I remember really liking it. I appreciate you explaining the cultural and linguistic significance of some of the scenes. As an English speaker, I never would've gotten that. Cheers!

I will never see this movie the same way now. Thank you ! Great job, as always !

Ng Man-Tat, may he rest in peace. Uncle Tat and Stephen Chow were one of the best, if not THE BEST duo ever and the will be forever two of my favorite actors ever.

I have never seen Liu Sanjie (1960), but I have seen Tao Hua Lian or Desperate Love Bitter End (1980). It was prevalent in the United States of America's Hmong community. It was the first riddle song at the film's beginning between the city doctor and village girl, Tao Hua that hooked me in.

I actually hadn't watched this movie until a few days ago, but here in Venezuela it was considered a classic...and after getting to watch it, I definitely now see why, and I'm now definitely looking forward to watch your coverage of it.

the first time i saw shaolin soccer was because of my babysitter. she knew exactly what kind of movies i liked and was always ready with an exciting new movie for me every week. i miss her.

It's really neat learning the inside scoop and cultural references that I would've never understood on my own. Thanks for deepening my appreciation for a classic!

Wow, this is one of my favourite films and never knew about the mandarin accent. Thanks

this movie was monumental to me in childhood. and brought me to venture into loving Kung Pow , Kung Fu Hustle and the Slapstick Spaghetti Shaolin Genre

This was my first Stephen Chow film, and I fell in love right away. Thank You for filling in a whole bunch of gaps in my knowledge, so I can appreciate it even more!

Thanks for making this! This is definitely one of my fav HK & Chow Sing Chi's films ever. What makes this even more special, just like you & your buddies, is that i always watch this with people i love. Man, I wanna watch this with my siblings again for the millionth time.

Uncle Tat and Singa duo is perfect in every movie,

Shaolin soccer is the most Anime like live action from a no-anime-adaptation ever made

Me and my Brother loved this movie growing up. Its nice to see that this film has a connection to other things in modern Chinese culture that two Black American kids wouldn't know about but still enjoyed.

When I saw my first Stephen Chow movie, I went down a rabbit hole of cinema that I'd been missing out on. Now I watch things from many different cultures fucking worth it.

would never know that the movie referencing on old 60s-80s movies, but the production value was top notch!

One of the best movies of my childhood hands down.

I love Shaolin Soccer, one of the best movies ever made of all time! Thank you so much for putting in the effort to make this video! I didn't know almost all of those references but still enjoyed the movie a lot. Really shows how genius Stephen Chow is!

Woah the floating duet reference threw me off. That was really clever how he put it in.

One of the greatest movies of all time.

Uncle Tat is amazing. I like that both Chow and Tat switch roles between the comic and the straight man. Sometimes in the same film.

its feel like a dream, 2 years ago watching kungfu hustle refrence, now shaolin soccer..dude ur channel its goat

Shaolin Soccer has the most anime in a kung-fu movie. Stephen Chow might be the most cultured GOAT filmmaker not only in Hong Kong cinema but in world cinema

i was first exposed to this movie by my uncle in Jamaica. back in the early 2000s. it was one of my favorite movies as a kid.

Chow Star Star is so good at 're-presenting'/ referencing other movies' plots into his own movie style

Wow! Ive watched this movie numerous times and I never knew this movie had multiple references from other Chinese movies which makes me appreciate this movie even more!

i don't know why among of so many wholesome characters from diff. movies mui is the one that has a special place in my heart since the day I saw it for the first time

I'll be honest, I got excited when I saw you acknowledge the existence of 'Forbidden City Cop' by featuring it in a short montage! It's my personal favourite. ^-^

I can't believe it's the same guy from kung fu hustle !!! That one is still one of my favorites of all time

I absolutely love this breakdown

I brought and played this movie for my class back in junior high and we all loved it. Now that you explained the details, i love it more than ever. Thanks!

I first watched this movie as a kid and it was special then. Learning more about it just make it even more special. My dad used to bring home those weird dvds and that was one of them. My whole family loved the movie and I see it now.

Yay more positive reviews of Chinese cinema please! This was and still is one of my favourite Chinese movies in the history of Chinese cinema.

So happy to see someone talking about Shaolin Soccer. I can't stress how much of a formative event in the development of my sense of humor seeing this movie as a little kid was

Shaolin Soccer and Kung fu hustle are favorite movies for us Indians too ❤

Bruh, I love this movie. A friend of mine back in highschool had a copy and we passed it around. classic!

Thank you for this video! I appreciate the context and references explained! I feel I can enjoy Shaolin Soccer even more now. I would like to see more videos like this explaining the references of other Chinese language films!

This film holds a special place in my heart. I had a cd of it when I was a child and everytime my friends came over and wanted to watch a movie I'd put this on the crt tv. Me and my cousins probably watched this movie over 20 times. It made my childhood so much better

I loved this movie growing up! I had actually never seen any of this director’s other movies. I only saw this film because it somehow showed up in my local library’s movie selection. Thank you so much for this video! It brought a whole new appreciation for all the small details

Thanks so much for this deep dive presenting new information about a very important film

Great stuff - I can't believe I didn't notice the God of Cookery line :D

I have watched a whole lot of your videos and today I know why. I finally realized that you are one of a kind my friend. There are plenty of people doing movie reviews, all sorts of analyzing, rating and giving scores to movies but I have yet to see someone taking a deep dive, dissecting into a production the way that you do. It's easy to watch a movie and then go make a KZread video, giving your two cents of which I see another ten thousand people do. Mostly by the means of copying what others had already spoke about. Somehow I felt like while the others are drawing stick men, you are drawing the Mona Lisa. It is what that comes from the heart that connects to people. Going to the theater, spending $25-30 bucks isn't as satisfying till after seeing the movie and sit through your Video Essay. Then one could feel more appreciation to director and film crew. If only movie studios and screen writers would have half a brain like people like yourself, there would be so many empty seats at the movies. I guess there too many idiots who is willing to shell out their wallet for any garbage entertainment, so they keep coming out with mediocre films. Somehow, Hollywood, Disney and especially the MCU, I find for the last little while has been like a dog that takes a dump and turns around to smells it in great joy.

There's no sports comedy movies like this,, mixed with football & KungFu in it

The way you say Stephen helped many actors get a good break in Chinese movies, he may as well be like the Chinese Edgar Wright! (High compliments!)

i have been watching this movie ever since it aired on a star mandarin channel. the egg training, the part where tools drop from the opponent short and he says "im a mechanic" and the random dancing are my favorites always loled at those scene. also most of chow's recent movies mostly have cast from his previous movies and there would always be a cameo of recurring actors i could just wish they could have one more movie with sharla cheung

IDK how i got here, but i loved it. One of my favorite childhood movies. I still remember all the scenes. Thank you

just like the kung hustle video essay, you made me appreciate a movie much more again!

I forgot how much I loved this movie. I was half way eye teary during the whole video, you made it a lot richier now.