This Martial Arts Classic May Be the Best Attempt at Live-Action Anime We Ever See

Live-action anime adaptations are one of those golden tickets that mainstream Hollywood is still trying to crack. Netflix has certainly taken a swing or two at adapting huge properties, resulting in the success of One Pieceand the not-so-much success of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Some of the earlier big studio efforts were hollow disappointments, like Ghost in the Shell, and others were tragically unheralded masterpieces, like Speed Racer. The transition from animated elements to live-action is already difficult enough as it is (just ask Disney), let alone when it's an animation philosophy from another culture and one prone to pushing the envelope with plausible reality. Shaolin Soccer, by renowned goofball auteur Stephen Chow, is one of the few films to truly nail the feel of anime in live-action, which is all the more ironic because it's an entirely original film that only he could have made.