In my opinion, the failure of "Shaolin Football" to be released in the mainland is a fortunate thing for the vast number of Stephen Chow fans and audiences who like Hong Kong movies.
cause? Let's start at the beginning.
"Shaolin Soccer" is currently in the introduction of many encyclopedias, the production company only retains Chow Sing Chi's own Xinghui overseas company founded in 1996, but in fact, in addition to "Xinghui" when the film is being prepared, there are two mainland film companies involved in the production, one is pearl river film company and the other is a Chinese film company, both of which have a common feature, that is, they are both mainland film institutions.
The National Film Administration Regulations clearly stipulate: "All films produced by mainland film companies, or plans to release films in the mainland, must first be examined and approved by the national development and review organs." "Whether it is the former or the latter, it means that whether It is released in Hong Kong or mainland China, it needs to be approved by the Film Bureau.
So, the problem is "auditing" here.
"Shaolin Soccer" was originally planned to be released simultaneously in Hong Kong and the mainland on July 12, impacting the summer file, after the film was completed, Xinghui Overseas Company sent all the materials to the Film Administration for review, but the film Administration's audit result was: not passed.
There are two well-known reasons:
(01): The title involves the word "Shaolin", because of the conflict with the copyright of the Shaolin Temple in Songshan, Henan, and many meanings such as the thousand-year-old temple and traditional culture represented by the word "Shaolin", which lead to the word "Shaolin" not appearing in Stephen Chow's film, but we know that the words that begin with "Shaolin" are not without film and television works.
So the real reason is not the word "Shaolin" itself, but the combination of "Shaolin" and "football", the trial leaders at that time and the Shaolin Temple believed that "Shaolin" is a solemn, serious word, when the words "Shaolin" and "football" are combined, it will make people have some joking views of Shaolin, turning solemn things into comedy, which is not allowed.
(02): Those who have watched "Shaolin Football" know that the golden right foot played by Wu Mengda in the play, the reason why he fell into poverty and swearing, was because he played a fake ball, and the game in which Wu Mengda participated in the play was called "National Super Cup Football Tournament", at that time, Chinese football was in constant "match-fixing" questioning, after Wanda withdrew from jia a in 98 years, the atmosphere of football did not change much, but became more and more intense.
Therefore, for the many sensitive events described in "Shaolin Football" that occurred on the "Super Cup", such as black whistles, match-fixing, and doping, it is naturally not suitable for appearing on the big screen in China.
The above two reasons are currently the most widely circulated, but also relatively the most accurate reasons, in the first point, the Film Administration of that year suggested that "Xinghui" change the name of the film to "Kung Fu Football", but Xinghui refused, and in July as scheduled in Hong Kong, for a time Zhou Xingchi and "Shaolin Football" became the target of public criticism, while on the other side, Zhuying and China Film had signed a subsidiary agreement before cooperating with "Xinghui", and "Shaolin Football" must first pass the review of the General Administration of Film once it was released. Otherwise, all the consequences shall be borne by Xinghui Company.
But in the end, Zhou Xingchi and "Shaolin Football" have not been punished, and they have not been released in the mainland, and the compromise and treatment here may be the retreat of "Zhuying" and "China Film" and the layers of asset level cutting. After all, "Shaolin Soccer" reached 42.77 million US dollars at the box office in Hong Kong, North America, Japan and other places that year, which was about 350 million yuan according to the exchange rate of that year, while the mainland box office champion "Pearl Harbor" was only 104 million, and even the top ten together did not exceed 350 million.
Therefore, for "Shaolin Football", it has not been released in the mainland, and the economic loss seems to be less important.
ps: In addition to the two reasons mentioned above, there is a possible reason is the last two words in the name of the movie: football, the movie Zhou Xingchi said a sentence: "ball, not so kicking drops", vaguely let many people feel that this is a satire of Chinese football, when the movie was released, Chinese football is still three months away from rushing into the most critical game of the World Cup 1:0 victory over Oman, when the national football team is still in the audience spit in the hard-hit area, in the critical period of impacting the World Cup, such a slightly mocking national football movie, Naturally, it is not very suitable for public screening.
These three incomparably important reasons at that time, now look back, really some are not worth mentioning, "Shaolin Temple" self-release, "hosting" is all kinds of news, the solemnity of the heart and mind has long been made thin by themselves.
As for the "black whistle", "match-fixing" and "men's national football", do you still care about someone complaining and joking? Not to mention movies, even the official media have long been intolerable.
So stand and watch it today, glad that the "Shaolin Soccer" of that year did not have a "castration" operation because he wanted to enter the mainland theater, otherwise we may not have seen such a wonderful and perfect "Shaolin Soccer".
(Text/Erwa)