Kung Fu Soccer: Stephen Chow's 25th Anniversary Sequel is Missing its Hong Kong Spark
By Alice Shih
Rating: B-
On Oct 23, 2001, Stephen Chow broke the East-West laugh barrier with the cult classic Shaolin Soccer. Fittingly, the long-awaited sequel, Kung Fu Soccer was released in North America and the U.K. on Oct. 23, its 25th anniversary.
This somewhat disappointing sequel centres on new characters, in the emerging sport of women’s soccer.
Our protagonists are two women who’ve known each other since childhood. The team captain, Shuang (Xiaofei Zhang) is a head-strong orphan, while wealthy Jade (Dilraba Dilmurat) is super sensitive and emotional. They trained in Kung Fu together under the Emei Grandmaster (Carina Lau) and bonded early on.
Dilraba Dilmurat and Xiaofei Zhang are lifelong friends and on-field strikers in Kung Fu Soccer
It’s 30 years later, and Emei’s proteges become an underdog soccer team – owned by the Grandmaster herself - facing a “make or break” situation for the teammates’ personal and career paths. As an owner, The Grandmaster is chill. She plays mahjong to pass her time, trusting the team to her appointed coach Xu (Yixing Zhang), also the duo’s childhood friend.
Can they find a path to glory? That is the question posed in this paper-thin plot. Kung Fu Soccer is laden with recycled jokes and CG-generated action sequences depicting football matches against villainous teams in the international tournament.
Kung Fu Soccer was the most anticipated Chinese movie of 2026. It is Chow’s biggest budget film to date. It is relatable and the general audience will get some laughs. But die-hard fans of Chow might have been hoping for new twists, be it a new take on the distinctly Hong Kong absurdist slapstick comedy (Mo Lei Tau) or a freshly invented comedic form to excite them.
The Hong Kong audience who grew up watching Chow with pride may find themselves feeling left out. The whole film is set in China with characters speaking in Mandarin (not Cantonese). The story is still a portrait of underdogs, but the depiction does not evoke the spirit of Hong Kong as the original did in a poignant, funny way.
The narrative of trust vs betrayal as motivation for elevating physical and emotional skills seems to have fallen short. The characterizations reduce the capable cast to mere caricatures being pulled along by plot convenience.
Although there are obstacles to overcome along the way meant to create character arcs, there ultimately doesn’t seem to be much at stake. We miss the lovable little guys in Shaolin Soccer with their unique shortcomings; despite their flaws, we still care deeply and would root for them. The characters created in this sequel are not as strong making the film feel like a live-action manga.
A new alternative from the producer is to present an English-dubbed version. Jimmy O. Yang, MC Jin and Stephen Chow reprise their respective roles in English, bringing their characters’ performances to audiences who prefer to watch it in that language.
I haven’t watched the dubbed version so I can’t comment if the story presented is easier for the English-speaking audience to appreciate or more is lost in the translation. However, the audience is given a choice of dubbed or English-subtitled. A special Cantonese-dubbed version is also in the works, with its voice cast to be announced soon.
Kung Fu Soccer. Directed by Stephen Chow. Written by Stephen Chow, Man-Keung Chan & Woody Hui. Starring Xiaofei Zhang, Dilraba Dilmurat, Yixing Zhang, MC Jin, Sisley Choi, Louis Cheung, Jimmy O. Yang, Takeru Satoh and Carina Lau. Kung Fu Soccer is playing in select Canadian theatres.