Shaolin Soccer's Unique Physics Laws
Shaolin Soccer is a popular Honk Kong blockbuster released in 2001. It takes place in modern times and combines the ancient concepts of Shaolin Kung Fu with competitive soccer through CGI special effects. The CGI special effects are focused on the kung fu elements of the movie with exaggeration that disregards physics realism, producing an extremely comical movie with a plot that is not to be taken seriously. The entire movie is full of physics controversies; in this essay, we will examine the physic laws of Shaolin Soccer animation which challenge the common physics laws, including Shaolin Soccer’s Action-Reaction Principle, the Shaolin Soccer laws of gravity, and Shaolin Soccer’s Law of Inertia.
The Newton’s Action-Reaction Principle states “For every action force there is an equal reaction force in the opposite direction.” The Shaolin Soccer Action-Reaction Principle does not necessarily have an equal reaction force. One instance is during the first soccer practice among the Shaolin brothers. The Second Brother “Mighty Steel Leg” takes the soccer ball and kicks it into the air. Due to his Shaolin Training, he is able to kick the ball so high that it disappears from the naked eye and stays in the air for over an hour.
When the ball hits the ground, it exerts its force on the ground, which is such a large mass that it does not move but exerts a reaction force onto the soccer ball, causing the soccer ball to bounce back into the air. The soccer ball loses some energy from friction, but reaches no more than 12 feet in the air and stays in the air for less than 2 seconds on the second bounce. The soccer ball is an elastic object with an estimated coefficient of restitution of height loss to be between 40%-60% with each bounce. Even if the soccer ball bounce was calculated at the higher height loss of 60% per bounce, with this calculation it would mean the first kick only reached 30 feet height (12ft / 0.4) and stayed in the air for 5 seconds (2sec / 0.4). This was obviously not the case, as the ball was portrayed to have stayed in the air for over 60 minutes. This inconsistency demonstrates that the shaolin powers of the “Mighty Steel Leg” applies only to the initial force exerted on an object but loses its power in the reaction force.
In another example, when the Shaolin Soccer Team goes against the Demon Soccer Team in the finale match, the Action-Reaction Principle is overpowered by the power of “American Drugs” for the Demon Team athletes. When Mighty Steel Leg attempts his third goal at the Demon goalie, the CGI portrayed the ball to travel about 15 inches per frame, which is estimated to be 20 mph. The CGI special effects portrayed the soccer ball to break through the atmosphere, changing the atmosphere colors into the shape of a Puma, indicating its high speed. The Demon goalie not only stopped the ball, he grabbed it with both hands without bending his elbows or moving any other parts of his body. Although the ultra-fast soccer ball appeared to cause no damage to the goalie, the impact of the soccer ball seemed to cause the reaction force to exert from the goalie’s feet onto the ground around him. The CGI portrayed the reaction force to cause an outward circle of energy in the form of the ground rippling and the wind blowing around the goalie. This is another example of special Action-Reaction Principles in the Shaolin Soccer Animation when it comes to strong characters.
Another example of uneven action-reaction forces can be seen with Metal Head’s character, also during the final match. When he goes against his counterpart on the Demon team, the Demon player flies head first at about 36 inches per frame; or 50 mph. Combined with the Demon player’s mass of an estimated 180 lbs, the impact on Metal Head should have made a normal human crack like an egg. Although Metal Head has an extremely strong head, his mass should not have been able to stop the Demon character’s attack.
The second physics law that is unique to Shaolin Soccer Animation is the lack of gravity for the Shaolin Soccer characters. The most obvious would be in the case of character Light Weight, who can jump and stay in the air so long he emulates flying. Ironically, he is also the heaviest character in the movie. During his moment in the final match, his jumped at a constant velocity of 4 inches per frame (5 mph), continued to rise for about 4 seconds, which suggests his jump height of 30 ft.
Not only is his 30 ft. jump height unrealistic, he did so with a push height of a mere 3 inches. At an estimated weight of 300 lbs, for Light Weight to jump 30 ft with a 3 inch push height means he pushed with 36,000 lbs of force! Light Weight really did not emphasize on his push strength, therefore this example shows that there is a lack of gravity in the Shaolin Soccer animation world, when it comes to the Shaolin characters.
Conversely, gravity is present and even more extreme than normal when Light Weight is struck from above right after his huge jump. He falls onto the ground so hard; he falls into the ground and makes a dent in the shape of his body. This is contradicting gravity.
Another example of a lack of gravity among the characters is the scene where all of the brothers suddenly realized their powers came back to them. This was in the middle of their first practice match, after the big brother Metal Head surrendered to the opposing team.
During this freeze moment, the movie showed each of the brothers in their signature poses, they stayed very stable with disregard to the laws of the center of gravity: the Third Brother Iron Body was seen balancing on one leg, with the rest of his body parallel to the ground; the Fourth Brother Bruce Lee look-alike was seen grasping the side of the soccer goal with one hand while balancing in mid air. If following the center of gravity laws, the Third Brother’s base of support should be under the pelvis. The Fourth Brother’s center of gravity should have hung right below the point of suspension.
The Shaolin Soccer’s Law of Inertia is another physics law that is unique in Shaolin Soccer Animation. Under Newton’s Law of Inertia, “an object moves with constant, uniform motion until acted on by an unbalanced force.” In Shaolin Soccer’s Law of Inertia, an object may travel in constant motion even though an unbalanced force is present. In the first tournament match of Team Shaolin vs. the white-uniformed team, Mighty Steel Leg makes several goals easily. One of his final goals were made by kicking the soccer ball into an opponent with so much force, the opponent is carried into the goal along with the soccer ball.
In this scene, the opponent player and soccer ball travel into the goal at an estimated velocity of 6 inches per frame. This equates to about 7.4 mph, and he was in the air for about 3 seconds. During the 3 seconds of travel time, the player did not slow down or descend, even though the force of gravity was present. The force of gravity can be seen as present by the goalie that is placed behind the flying player; the goalie was stepping in place in anticipation of the goal, obviously bound by the normal laws of gravity.
The same rule applies to many characters of Shaolin Soccer. Right after the previous example, Might Steel Leg runs into a jump at an angle that is almost parallel to the ground, extends both of his legs to kick the soccer ball, and stays in the air for a total of 3 seconds. During his 3 seconds of hang time, he does not lose velocity or height. Immediately after, Metal Head is also seen in the air for a few seconds without losing speed or height, before he hits the ball with his head. Both are examples of ignoring Newton’s Law of Inertia. The Shaolin Soccer Law of Inertia seems to apply to all strong characters, before unleashing an extra-powerful attack.
Shaolin Soccer is a live-action film that is heavy with CGI special effects. The CGI effects used in the movie made the storyline possible. The CGI was focused on humor rather than realism. In the Shaolin Soccer world, the Shaolin Soccer Law of Action-Reaction, Law of Gravity, and Law of Inertia are all unique to Shaolin Soccer. Although most of the special effects may not be realistic, they certainly made the movie!
