Although the plot is incredulous, the movie is easy to follow because of its pacing, the occasional mindless humour and puns.
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For an action-packed comedy set in the Song dynasty, and with a title like 'Soccer Killer', the film is hardly about soccer.
The film opens with a soccer match with supernatural elements and a team which looks like a flimsy knockoff of the Avengers franchise. The conflict of the film revolves around the sovereignty of the Empire, which will be decided through a game of soccer with a menacing spiky metal ball.
Princess Changping (Gillian Chung) embarks on a mission to seek out the best martial arts masters to form her soccer team. If they win the match, their country will remain sovereign. The martial arts masters are an expired team who are way past their glory days. It is refreshing to view how they have been demoted to commoners, learning to adapt to everyday life. Their situation is somewhat pitiful but laughable at the same time. In the midst of all these is a martial arts duo (He Jiong & Charlene Choi) attempting to revive the name of their sect. Both get entangled into a love triangle with the princess, but the romance appears to be contrived. The romance plot gets exciting when they all return to the palace to prepare for the ultimate soccer match.
The cast is made up of mostly B-listers, which makes their acting somewhat cringeworthy. Their characters lack depth and are not well developed. However, Charlene Choi’s character brings comedic relief to the show with her quirky demeanour. There is a lack of coherence in plot and the scenes are fragmented with instances of cheap humour thrown in. Although the plot is incredulous, the movie is easy to follow because of its pace. The audience doesn’t get bored and is frequently entertained by its mindless humour and occasional puns.
The film aims to connect both the spiritual and the mortal realm in the final soccer match, causing it to appear like an awkward religious allegory with the inclusion of the Thousand-hand Guan Yin. The soccer match serves as a good rallying point to show the unity of the people in a time of crisis.
Despite this, the film doesn’t have much plot to speak of. It appears more like a drama condensed into a short film with no proper character development.
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