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Shaolin Soccer (UMD)
Region 1 • PG-13 • Dolby Digital • Available Now
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This UMD is a bit lazily made, shocking since it comes from Buena Vista, who churn out quality UMDs better than most companies these days.
Thoughts on the Movie
Had it not been for the UMD format, I would have never been introduced to Stephen Chow’s movies such as Kung Fu Hustle and now this. I dig the way Chow likes to spice up his kung fu arts with musical interludes, as if kung fu needed any spices to begin with.
This movie revolves around a crippled man named the Golden Leg who used to be great in his prime. He sees and convinces a poor kung fu master to mix his arts with soccer to get revenge on the team that crippled him in the first place. And so, we get some pretty hilarious moments where the team trains for the game, not knowing anything about soccer but everything about kung fu. The special effects aren’t too convincing, but in a movie like this they work just fine.
Basically, if you saw and liked Kung Fu Hustle you should definitely check out this older film. It’s just a plain hilarious movie, and there isn’t much else to say about it, other than I recommend it for any kung fu action fan. Or heck, fans of movies in general.
Video Quality
The movie is maintained in the original 1.85 ratio, and it looks fine. The colors aren’t too vivid, but it’s the way the movie is supposed to look. The special effects look better on the PSP screen, and the visuals came across very sharp. Nice job overall.
4/5
Audio Quality
Well, phooey. The default setting for the UMD is the English dubbed track with no subtitles. Don’t you even THINK about watching the movie like that.
Thankfully, we get subtitles and a Cantonese track as well, but it’s not all good news unfortunately. Six or seven times I encountered a “hiccup” in the audio, with a split second of garbled sound. This was not present in the English track, and I tried it with another PSP to make sure it was in the UMD itself and not a hardware glitch... and got the same results.
The audio sounds loud and good, but the hiccups are pretty inexcusable.
2.5/5
Extras
We get a really nice menu with a scene selection, but no extras. There were no extras on the DVD version, so this was expected.
BUT... it’s what’s not here that I am disappointed. The DVD allowed you to choose from the original theatrical cut and the original director’s cut, with 23 extra minutes to the director’s version. The UMD only has the theatrical version, running at 89 minutes. Maybe Buena Vista didn’t have the resources to figure out seamless branching on UMD, but they could have at least included the cuts as deleted scenes. It’s really disappointing.
Oh, and there are forced trailers in the beginning. Gah!
2/5
Overall…
While the movie is great, the UMD definitely could have been better. Whoever thought the default tracks should be English dubbed should be shot. The missing scenes and audio glitches make this UMD a tough one to recommend, so buyer beware!
2.5/5
