Shaolin Soccer

Stephen Chow!! He's such a hilarious guy. This movie is probably one of his funniest.

Iron Head and sing trying to rouse up the Kung fu spirit in gangsters

Fung (Ng Man Tat) used to be a famous soccer player, but because his rival teammate, Hung (Patrick Tse) set up an event that led to his cripple leg, he now is a human foot-stool for Hung. Fung meets Sing (Stephen Chow), who has an amazing "Mighty Steel Leg" and gets an idea to use Sing's Shaolin Kung fu to beat Hung's soccer team and win the tournament. Sing agrees because his ultimate dream is to teach people to incorporate Kung fu into their everyday lives to improve it. After some major encouragement, he gathers his Shaolin brothers to train with Coach Hung. They're a bit rusty on the Kung fu and can't play soccer for their life, but Sing manages to bring their butt-kicking spirit back to fight play against Hung's "Evil Team" (such an evil name).

The Shaolin Bros get their game on.

Now don't let the language barrier stop you from watching this movie. The subtitles are pretty accurate, but I have to admit..knowing Chinese makes this movie perfect. I have watched Stephen Chow's mo lei tau (Chinese wordplay) movies and I understood it like an American: I had no idea what was so funny. Shaolin Soccer, however, doesn't use much mo lei tau. The humor is mostly physical and slapstick, so I kept laughing throughout this whole movie. Having the director be the star of the film really gets things done. There is really no one that can star a Stephen Chow movie than the man himself. He works great with Ng Man Tat and Wong Yut Fei (Iron Head). The romance between Mui (Vicki Zhao) and Sing seemed a little rushed, but Hey, kung fu attracts girls, right? The action scenes were very cool. Even though the CGI isn't as polished as the movies nowadays, the scenes are so over-the-top that they're hilarious. I recommend you see the full 102-minute version of the film (not the Miramax 80-minute version). I don't know why they would cut 20 minutes of great scenes.

This is Empty Hand (Bruce Lee Danny Chan Kwok Kwan)

Filming Cheaters (now called The Dilemma) in Chicago!

I happened to walk by the filming of Cheaters (2011) and ahem...Channing Tatum and Winona Ryder!!

They were filming in Chicago Chinatown's Wentworth Street. The film crew totally transformed one of the gift stores into a movie set! They moved all of the nick-knacks out of the store and put some meat on display and random Chinese candies inside the store. There were extras and cars lined up on the street to pass through the scene at the right time. Only part of the street was blocked for filming, so the lucky tourists that happened to walk by were able to take pictures and watch the magic happen. Most of the Chinese people that lived in Chinatown just wanted to cross the street because they had no idea what was happening. Who the heck is Channing Tatum? I just want to get some bok choy!

Luckily, I lived near Chinatown so I could run to my house to grab my camera with huge zooming lenses to get clear pictures. Other people were caught by surprise and only had their phones and iPods. "There's lots of paparazzi here," the security guard said. Gosh...I'm sure he was just talking about me. The security guards blocked the streets when they were filming and told me that pictures weren't allowed, but someone with more authority told us that pictures were allowed, but no flash. I was going to take pictures anyways- it's much too exciting.

The Hollywood interpretation of a Chinatown store

Here's the scene: Channing Tatum parks his car and gets out, leaving Winona Ryder inside. He walks into the store and buys a roast duck from the Asian dude. The salesman dumps the duck into a plastic bag and gives it to Tatum. He gets out of the store, waving the duck at the woman. Then, he gets back in the car and drives away. They must have done the same scene at least ten times. 

Tatum with duck in a bag

Hollywood is hilarious... in the real Chinatown, the butcher chops the duck up and puts it in an aluminum take out box, all of the drivers aren't white, and the people walking aren't all young and hip.

If I walk around Chicago, I might just end up watching the whole movie!