SUBMITTED BY LClem

August 5, 2003 — 08.04.2003 - A representative of Miramax has just confirmed that their planned wide release of an edited version of the martial arts comedy Shaolin Soccer has been cancelled. In its place, the company will put into limited release, the original Cantonese language version with subtitles. This decision comes after a test screening of Miramax's dubbed version in Calgary, Canada apparently flopped. Miramax originally purchased U.S. distribution rights to the Hong Kong blockbuster hit not long after its release in 2001. Since then, the company has sat on the film while applying numerous edits in an attempt to market the comedy to Western audiences. Original changes included renaming the film Kung Fu Soccer (this change was never finalized), re-dubbing the film into English, cutting at least 20 minutes, adding one previously cut scene, and adding new music to the soundtrack. These changes, according to a Miramax spokeswoman, were fully supported by the film's writer, director, and star Stephen Chow who even dubbed his own voice into English. In the last year, a vocal group of Asian film fans on the internet have increasingly voiced their disapproval of 'MiramAXE,' as they have dubbed the company and their parent entity Disney, over the editing they have performed on previously released films such as Iron Monkey and The Legend of Drunken Master (AKA Drunken Master II). Though both films, which were originally released in the mid-'90s, bore moderate success at the box office, the topic of debate rages over the integrity of the original works and how they are presented to general audiences. It now looks like general audiences will be the real losers of this contest. A limited arthouse release with little advertising dollars spent will make it all the more difficult for the successes this film has had in Asia to be repeated in the U.S. For the newly planned release of Shaolin Soccer, Miramax is expected to edit out only minor footage in order to maintain a PG-13 rating. The release date is now set for September.