Soccer anyone?
 

Just in case anyone is interested, "Shaolin Soccer" is available for pre-order from Hivizone and DVDshelf. Release date is 9/3. The extended version. Region 0.
Joel

personally I think it should have been called Shaolin Football, because it is the more widespread name. American Football? It's more like hand ball or run with ball.
Although Shaolin Soccer's probably got a better ring to the title, although it's very much catering towards the US audience.

I was gonna post this but someone beat me to it.

Anyway, here's what I got:

Shaolin Soccer - released Sept 3rd

Region All, Letterboxed, Dolby Digital and DTS, Mandarin/Cantonese audio, English subs,
running time= 102 mins. (not sure if this is the extended version) Can someone confirm?

no mention of making of or other special features, so this looks to be a barebones disc.

DVD = HK$69
VCD = HK$45

---------------------------

Para Para Sakura - released Sept 3rd

Region All, Letterboxed, Dolby Digital
Running time - 101 mins

DVD = HK$79
VCD = HK$45

---------------------------

Love on a Diet + Making of

running time - 98 mins

VCD only = HK$58. (Exactly the same as the previous VCD release except you get a making of disc.

---------------------------

Midnight Fly

Region All, Letterboxed, Dolby Digital
running time - 110 mins

DVD = HK$55
VCD = HK$36

this movie is awesome, a definite buy

it is the extended version, running for $70HK (around $9 US) at DDDHouse.

This is posted on DDDHouse's Today's News:

September 01
Shaolin Soccer still present in cinema, Universe Laser announced that it will not be released on 3rd September until further notice.


http://www.dddhouse.com/cgi-local/page.cgi?page_id=9

....just my luck...ordered it this morning at 2:45 AM... bah...

What's DDDHouse's policy on multi-part shipments? (ordered that w/ God of Cookery, will I get that before or with Shaolin Soccer - whenever it is that it ships.)

-Rich

You should e-mail Johnny and get everything straight. Last time I placed an order and one of the items turned up as being a back-order, he e-mailed me and asked if I wanted the order to ship without the item.

Maybe later next week
 

On another forum someone posted that he was told that while Shaolin Soccer is not going to be released on the 3rd, it is going to be released next week. Is this in stone? I don't know. Hivizone and DVDshelf still have it up for pre-order.

Well here's something I don't really understand - apparently the "official" VCD of the movie has already been released... This kind of confuses me as to why this would be released and not the DVD - so by all means, the DVD should be out soon, right?

-Rich

Shaolin Soccer
 

The only "official" vcd released, is the extremely crappy, dontmakemegoonaboutit Malaysian vcd. Malaysia usually gets a vcd of a HK film weeks or months before it's official release on vcd in HK. The reason being piracy concerns for the most part, and the fact that Malay HK vcds are of such incredibly poor quality that they do not encourage parallel importation. In HK the vcd may preceed the dvd release by days, weeks, or months (in the case of companies such as Deltamac and Chinastar). Unlike with the US, HK doesn't have a generally standard release pattern for theatrical releases to home video. A bevy of factors such as piracy concerns, box office returns, theater owners, etc may expedite or delay the films release to home video on vcd/dvd.

Hi Guys,

Good news. I just got an e-mail from Johnny from DDDHouse and he said that the DVD will be released some time before the 13th (most likely the 8th), but nothing is set is stone. Love on a Diet should be out on the 5th with no problem. No word yet on Para Para Sakura delay. Time to rewatch some of those old favorites for now.

That's very good news. What's one week anyway?

That's very good news. I was lucky enough to preorder the disc when it was for 13.99 at Yesasia. But they kept delaying the release date until now there IS no expected release date. And Yesasia is saying that Para Para Sakura is delayed until the 15th. Just a couple more days until Shaolin Soccer......

Anybody get Shaolin Soccer yet?
 

I pre-ordered this from hivi zone, but it hasn't arrived yet

still playing at the HK theatres....

I got the VCD - it's not very good quality-wise, but it's a great film. I wrote a review of it at IMDB. It's not as funny as his other films, but it's got some great special effects in it. I'm excited for the DVD. This film is much more mature than his other films and also has a bigger budget and much more high-tech special effects. The dialogue was looped (as most of his films are) and out of synch at times - seems like they could've done a better looping job with the money they put into it. If you're a Stephen Chow fan, you'll like it...

Oh well... here's a copy of my stupid review of it over at IMDB saying basically the same thing. (cuz I know you wouldn't go clicking over to IMDB to see one of my reviews).

This is a fantastic film. It has some cutting edge special effects, the cinematography is outstanding and the acting is top-notch. However, if you're a Steven Chow fan, you probably won't find yourself rolling on the floor in tears laughing. More likely you'll be on the edge of your seat in awe. Don't get me wrong - this film is still a Steven Chow comedy, but it's not as funny as many of his films. This film is a bit more mature than his past efforts. There's still the element of silliness here, but so much time was spent making the audience's jaw drop with special effects that there wasn't much time left for laughing. It's just good to see Steven Chow back on the screen again though.

Steven Chow plays a poor guy who's main focus in life is Shaolin Kung-Fu. He wants the world to learn Kung Fu and he thinks it could help everybody. He meets a man who wants to be a soccer coach and eventually they figure out that it would probably be a good idea to merge the two. This film follows the formula of many sports/comedies. The underdog team assembled from unlikely heros pitted against the uber team (here this team is even named "The Evil Team") trying to win against all odds and at all costs. This film has a new spin on the genre of course and it's a refreshing change. As in all Steven Chow films, there is a love story as well. Something for everybody. I haven't yet seen the extended version, but I'm eager to. I loved this film.

This isn't his funniest film by any means, but it's certainly his most technically advanced film. The thing that gets me is that they can spend so much time and money on the special effects, but then present the film with a terrible looping job. The audio is often out of sync as if it was rushed or else the actors didn't care when they went into the studio to loop all their dialogue. Still - I give this film an 8/10. I highly recommend this film - even to Steven Chow newcomers (just know that he's much much funnier than this in other films). It's available on DVD and VCD in HK - both very cheap from online retailers. The VCD is the shorter version and the quality is not that great, but it's in stereo instead of the left channel handling Cantonese and the right channel handling Mandarin. There are burned-in subs in 3 different languages (english included). The DVD has a DTS track and is the extended version of the film. Shell out the extra few bucks for the DVD if you plan to buy it (which you should).

re: shaolin soccer
 

The online places who allowed Shaolin Soccer are saying either it'll be released probably between 9/10&9/13 or sometime next week.
Joel

Trigger. What language was your VCD in? I wouldn't think the sound would be looped in cantonese, or would it?

Malaysian VCDS
 

Don't buy Malaysian vcds of newer HK movies and you won't have those problems Trigger. Quite frankly legit Malay HK vcds look at best like a badly done bootleg. Shockingly bad, and intentionally so.

Just saw Shaolin Soccer, OMG! This is a great film!!!
 

This movie lives up to its hype. Very funny movie with awesome kung fu effects. This is a must see film, you don't have to be a soccer fan to enjoy this one. The beginning was a bit slow but it really picks up. There are so many funny spoofs in this film that you'll enjoy watching it. For example, there's a scene where the goalie is dressed like Bruce Lee in his yellow jump suit (ala Game of Death). The funniest part though, was when 'iron leg' and 'iron head' were singing on stage!!! 10/10

It was looped Cantonese in stereo (no mandarin). Most HK movies are looped - only recently have they started to do a better job with dialogue sound in certain movies. All of Stephen Chow's films are looped as far as I know. At least he does his own voice unlike some of Jackie Chan's films. Jackie does his own english dubs more often than he did his HK ones it seems.

I knew the VCD was going to be bad - but I wanted to see it and couldn't wait anymore. The Love on a Diet VCD is awesome quality.

Several threads now merged.

:D Thanks, <b>Trigger</b> for the additional nudge.

Shaolin Soccer is still playing this week in HK at 22 theatres and it doesn't look like it'll be released on DVD until Sept 13 at the very earliest. (Generally Thursdays are when theatres swap out movies). If I were a betting man I'd say the DVD won't come out until the week of Sept 17.

Soccer release date
 

According to DDDHouse, Universe Laser releases Shaolin Soccer on 9/14. HiviZone also announces a 9/14 release date.