by François Tissandier (Cinemasie.com)

Title: the opening credits shows a KUNG-FU SOCCER title, but the movie will be titled as SHAOLIN SOCCER in France. For the USA, no idea, I let you guess what this opening means.
 
Dubbing: the movie was shown in Cantonese, with French subs
 
Subs: very good translating globally. Some jokes are not translated, Some stuffs are changed, but no big deal.
 
Music: good surprise, this canto version went with the original Raymond Wong's score, from the opening credits to the end (with the Andy Lau’s song). However, the Cannes screening seemed to show that the English dubbed version includes an English song. So, I bet it's better to trust the Cannes' report about that.
 
Cuts: it's not as bad as what we thought. A lot of short cuts (5 to 30 seconds), just a couple of scenes are cut. Even if you notice some of the cuts, globally, the movie is not distorted as much as Legend of Zu was (after its mutation into Zu Warriors). The movie is just cut, not re-edited, and the missing scenes are not mandatory (the locker room one, the chat between Ng and Tse), even if the scene between Zhao and the team is a real loss.
 
And good surprise, it's a good idea to have changed the scene when the goalkeeper is making his phone call. The new version is funnier. See below for the detail of cuts.
 
As a conclusion, this French version is not as bad as what we thought. SHAOLIN SOCCER won't be a "Miramax Syndrome" victim. The movie spirit is safe, it's still kung-fu, naive love story and Chow's humor.  However, this review doesn't refer to the English dubbed track. The US version may not be as enjoyable as the French one.
 
CUTS REPORT
 
NB: all those figures are estimations, calculated from the HK DVD. Some short cuts are probably missing, as all those cuts together are not enough to bring the movie duration to 1h27.
 
Opening: Replaced by a shorter and new one, with "KUNG FU SOCCER" title. 1:20 cut.
 
Locker room scene: CUT 0:50.
 
Extended version scene 1: The dance scene is in the Miramax version, but is slightly cut. 0:30 are missing (the song and dance of the 2 guys).
 
Dust bin shot: Vicky throwing the sneakers in the bin, CUT 0:07.
 
Bar scene: Dialog between Chow and Wong is cut 0:30. Last 30s of the scene is cut (from the demo of Chow to the end).
 
Song scene in the bar: 0:15 cut when Chow and Wong are hit by the bad guys then the last 30s of the scene are cut.
 
Street fighting: 20s cut just before Chow talks. 10s when the bad guy throws up. 8s in 2 cuts during the scene with the skinny guy
 
Goalkeeper first scene: 10 last seconds cut.
 
In the supermarket: 2 parts of the dialog are cut, 0:20.
 
On the roof: 25s are cut before Ng joins Chow on the roof.
 
Training: 45s are cut from the second egg kiss to the wall exercise.
 
Friendly game: Are cut: 15s of feints, 25s of fight, 7s when Wong has the brief on his head, 4s during the frozen traveling.
 
Team registration: Last 35s are cut.
 
To the shopping mall: 10s of the walk of Chow and Zhao are cut.
 
Extended version scene 2: The whole scene is missing. 3:55.
 
Chat between Tse and Ng: Whole scene is missing, as well as the bus departure. 2:00.
 
Final game: Cuts are: Maybe 10s after the teams' entrance, 7s shot of the goalkeeper bloody hand, 8s dialog when he is leaving (before he puts his sunglasses), 20s of Tse's dance, last 18s of the half time dialog in the locker room. The scene where the new goalkeeper makes a phone call is not the original one, but the one saw in the NG scenes of  extended version. Same length overall
8s when Tse asks his team to be harsher, 12s in 2 cuts when Chow gets his leg hurt.
 
Extended version scene 3: All the NG scenes are cut, 3:00