Sure, football fans will be devoting themselves to the European Championship final in Berlin this Sunday, but as counter-programming we have a first-class sports film for you. It’s not just a case of the ball hitting the goal, but also of football hitting kung fu, with scenes that you would hardly believe possible in a live-action film. Allow me to introduce Shaolin Kickers…
Shaolin Kickers is like Captain Tsubasa as a live-action film
Sports films thrive on underdogs who stand up to overwhelming opponents, and in Shaolin Kickers two of them meet: on the one hand there is the former Shaolin monk Sing (Stephen Chow), who wants to popularize kung fu in order to finally find students. And on the other hand there is the down-and-out soccer star Fung (Ng Man-Tat). Together they form a soccer team made up of Shaolin monks. As far as the action and soccer interludes go, you can pretty much imagine the rest.
Universe
Shaolin Kickers entertains with heart and soul
Shaolin Kickers sometimes looks like a live-action adaptation of Captain Tsubasa, which is no coincidence. Director, lead actor and co-author Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle) took the Japanese animation series as a model when he came up with Shaolin Kickers.
The result is Crazy action sequences that combine kung fu and footballGravity is counteracted and players fly through the air in a way you normally only see in anime. This makes for plenty of visual comedy. Shaolin Kickers is great action fun for the whole family thanks to the lovingly drawn characters and a sports story that incorporates classic values of the genre (teamwork, belief in yourself) without being too over the top.
How to watch Shaolin Kickers on TV today
Shaolin Kickers is on Pluto TV just in time for the final of the European Football Championship. The free, ad-financed provider recently launched our Moviepilot TV channel. Only films that have received good ratings from the Moviepilot community are shown here. The mix of martial arts adventure and sports comedy is on today, July 14th from 8:15 p.m. on Moviepilot TV with Pluto TVwithout subscription or additional costs.
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The football film even influenced One Piece on Netflix
Shaolin Kickers is one of the most entertaining football films everespecially because the computer effects, which were new at the time, were used so creatively. This also impressed the creator of One Piece.
Eiichiro Oda struggled for a long time with the idea of adapting his pirate adventures into a live-action film. He only changed his mind after watching Stephen Chow’s live-action cartoon. He told the New York Times last year:
But when I saw the movie Shaolin Kickers, it feltas if a manga-like world had come to life. I changed my mind. I realized that times had changed and there was now technology that could make a live-action version of One Piece possible.
This is how the live-action adaptation of One Piece came about on Netflix.