You know, morally, I am opposed to cutting up foreign films or altering their soundtracks, but, in the case of Shaolin Soccer, I'm going to take the dangerous position and say that the US edit (at least on DVD) is superior to the original version. Seriously.
Why do I think that?
I've seen the original version, and felt that the movie just dragged and dragged for the first hour or so. The song and dance bit, especially, seemed out of place and just was not funny. I loved the last half hour (the majority of action and FX are used there). Hell, best 30 minutes in any film since perhaps the Aliens heat-exchanger / Ripley-Queen sequences.
In the US version, they cut out portions from the beginning - cut out the bribe sequence, shortened the kung fu song and dance bit, cut down the "make fun of Mui" sequence that was just disturbing as opposed to funny, etc - making the awesome last third of the film come 23 minutes sooner.
Now, I don't like all the cuts they made -- but I have to say that getting to the best part of the film quicker was a good choice, IMHO.
Surprisingly enough, the English dub is pretty good as dubs go, but the DVD release also lets you choose the Chinese soundtrack with dubtitles too -- just in case you don't like dubs.
[It's nice that the US DVD also includes the uncut original Chinese version on the disc too. Makes comparisons easier. Also means people don't have to choose which version to get.]
Why do I think that?
I've seen the original version, and felt that the movie just dragged and dragged for the first hour or so. The song and dance bit, especially, seemed out of place and just was not funny. I loved the last half hour (the majority of action and FX are used there). Hell, best 30 minutes in any film since perhaps the Aliens heat-exchanger / Ripley-Queen sequences.
In the US version, they cut out portions from the beginning - cut out the bribe sequence, shortened the kung fu song and dance bit, cut down the "make fun of Mui" sequence that was just disturbing as opposed to funny, etc - making the awesome last third of the film come 23 minutes sooner.
Now, I don't like all the cuts they made -- but I have to say that getting to the best part of the film quicker was a good choice, IMHO.
Surprisingly enough, the English dub is pretty good as dubs go, but the DVD release also lets you choose the Chinese soundtrack with dubtitles too -- just in case you don't like dubs.
[It's nice that the US DVD also includes the uncut original Chinese version on the disc too. Makes comparisons easier. Also means people don't have to choose which version to get.]
