Synopsis: Team Emei is a women's football team, loved by all over China and set to take part in the ultimate football tournament. But as the opposing teams get tougher and tension between teammates grows, their chance at becoming the tournament champions is fast looking less and less likely! (106 Mins)

 

Views: I just got back from London after being invited to the Gala Premiere of Kung Fu Soccer, thanks to Encore Films who are giving the film it's big screen release across the UK & Ireland – as well as North America – with the choice of seeing it in Mandarin with English subtitles or with it's new English dub that features Stephen Chow himself. I recommend you go with the former option so that you can experience the true comedic performances from everyone involved! Oddly, early reviews for the film have not been favourable at all. Many of which, I can only imagine, are from younger critics that never really experienced Chow Sing Chi's humour in the 90s, or perhaps by more conservative critics that have been drowning in so much art-house cinema, they've forgotten all about the true meaning of film: escapism. For me, Kung Fu Soccer took me back to the earlier days of Chow's work – and from the roars of laughter coming from the packed screen of cinema goers around me, I certainly wasn't the only one! I took my cousin along to the screening as my plus-one. My husband was otherwise busy back home, or he absolutely would have been there having since become a big fan of Stephen Chow thanks to my introduction of his work when we met 14 years ago. This would be her first Chinese movie and definitely her first Stephen Chow Sing Chi comedy – so I tried to give her a slight heads-up. 'Think of it like a live-action cartoon with over-the-top characters, insane action, and ridiculous comedy that just goes to a whole other level.' Needless to say, she absolutely loved it and so did I. If I was to be honest, when Kung Fu Soccer was first announced I really wasn't expecting too much from it. I mean, getting a sequel (of sorts) to one of Hong Kong cinema's funniest action-comedies about 25 years later just felt so, well, Hollywood, not to mention: maybe a little too late. But my faith in the comic genius of Chow Sing Chi, who I firmly believe is the funniest man in the business, still got me on a flight from Belfast to London. And it was totally worth it!

 

As I watched Kung Fu Soccer wide-eyed and glued to the screen, there was really only a few faces I recognised from the large cast on offer. The first of these was the wonderful Carina Lau, one of Hong Kong cinema's most famed actresses and husband of the much-loved Tony Leung Chiu Wai. My first time watching Lau was in Jackie Chan's Project A 2 (1987), although not ignoring her brief cameo as a member of The Losers band in Armour of God (1986). Films like Rich and Famous (1987), Tragic Hero (1987), Naughty Boys (1986), She Shoots Straight (1990), Days of Being Wild (1990), and Saviour of the Soul (1991) would follow and, of course, over the decades I've seen her in so much more. She first worked with Chow on the hilarious Forbidden City Cop back in 1996, so it was nice to see them working together again 30 years later. Here, Carina plays the teams' Grandmaster – an unkept mahjong playing boss lady who has every bit of faith in her girls. The next is the handsome Lay Zhang, or Zhang Yixing; a popular Chinese actor and singer who found his beginnings with the South Korean-Chinese boy band Exo. Although he had been acting for a couple of years prior, the first film I had seen him in was starring alongside Jackie Chan in Kung Fu Yoga (2017). The roles kept coming after that until the pair joined forces again in Stanley Tong's underrated sequel, A Legend (2024), which then took him to this one. In Kung Fu Soccer, Lay plays team manager Xu Feng, a love interest to the girl's captain who has some interesting ways of breaking his team to help revitalise their love of the game. But he does a fantastic job in playing it, and looks great at the same time! And finally, there was a great cameo by Steven Fung – a regular face of Chow Sing Chi films such as King of Comedy (1999), Kung Fu Hustle (2004), CJ7 (2008) and it's follow-up animation, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (2013), and obviously Shaolin Soccer (2001) where he played the team leader of the opposing Rebellion team that came to the game heavily armed. Here, Fung gets another great cameo which lends itself to some fun moments in the outrageous grand finale. It's also worth noting that Hong Kong actor Louis Cheng appears, as well as popular American-born Hong Kong rapper MC Jin, and Crazy Rich Asians (2018) actor Jimmy O. Yang...

 

But as for almost everybody else involved – such as the gorgeous team of women who provided the majority of the entertainment – they were all pretty new to me! The first of these is Zhang Xiaofei who does a wonderful job as Shuang Shuang, the hot-headed team captain and main love interest of Lay Zhang's mentor, Xu Feng. While she has been incredibly popular in both film and television over the years, the only other film I've caught Xiaofei in was the fantastic YOLO (2024), which I also recommend you check out. As the main protagonist of the story, she does an amazing job delivering plenty of heart and emotion throughout. Equally impressive and entertaining is the beautiful Dilraba Dimurat as Yu Long, Shuang Shuang's best friend and the star striker of the Emei women's team. Full of attitude, much like her bestie, Dilraba's portrayal of Yu Long is hugely entertaining and another great addition to her long line of celebrated roles – mostly in television, one of which I'm currently watching, called Eternal Love (2017). That same year, she would star with Jackie Chan in the Chinese fantasy film Namiya with Chan playing the titular character of the piece. Both are joined by a great supporting cast in former child-actor Amy Chen, Sisley Choi, Hu Yu'an, and many more, while handsome Japanese actor Takeru Satoh – the leading star of the hugely popular Rurouni Kenshin film series – guest stars as the team coach for the Taiga team, the incredibly powerful final challenge for the Emei team in the tournament.

 

If there was one major criticism I had to throw at Kung Fu Soccer, it would be that of which most critics have been highlighting: the use of seemingly unfinished or cheap CGI. Honestly, this didn't affect me on a personal level – I could totally see past it and actually found it to be a great nod to it's predecessor; a nod that, for true fans of Shaolin Soccer (2001) will enjoy with the accompanying original score playing throughout. Heck, even the lollipop from Kung Fu Hustle makes a return! But really, anyone who needs to reduce their rating or claim that Kung Fu Soccer is bad because of this minor thing, has clearly lost touch with what entertainment is all about, because as a true fan of this comic genius I have to state that there's so much to love and enjoyment within this movie, it completely over-rides the questionable FX work (whether purposefully done or not) that hardly makes the negatives a deal-breaker! While his past directional efforts such as Kung Fu Hustle (2004), CJ7 (2008), Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (2013), The Mermaid (2016) and The New King of Comedy (2019) have let us see Chow grow and mature as a film-maker, I actually loved the fact that Kung Fu Soccer – this spiritual successor, of sorts, to his much loved original film – took us back to the good old days and allowed us to switch off, smile, cheer, and hurt from laughing. And if that isn't how you feel after watching this fantastic film, then perhaps you need to remember those five famous words from the legendary Bruce Lee... 'Be-wat-er-my-friend!'

 

Overall: While moments of CGI may let viewers down, Kung Fu Soccer still delivers plenty of laughs, over the top excitement, lots of heart and fantastic performances by all!