“Kung Fu Soccer” Poster
Singapore based distributor Encore Films will release Kung Fu Soccer (aka Shaolin Women’s Soccer) in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Ireland on October 23, 2026. The film is the latest from acclaimed Hong Kong filmmaker Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle).
The release comes during the 25th anniversary year of Chow’s 2001 classic, Shaolin Soccer, which became Hong Kong’s highest grossing local film upon its release before going on to develop a global cult following.
Unlike the original, Chow is only directing this time around. The sequel shifts its focus to a female soccer team and boasts an ensemble cast that includes Zhang Xiaofei (Five Hundred Miles), Dilraba Dilmurat (21 Karat), Yixing Zhang (A Legend), Xu Jiao (CJ7), Mi Ai (Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force), Sisley Choi (The Prosecutor), Isabelle Zhang, Jiayue Li and Zhao Lina.
Wong Yat-fei (Lee Rock), who played the blithering, chain-smoking Iron Head from the original, returns as the same character.
Additionally, Carina Lau (Warriors of the Future), Takeru Satoh (Rurouni Kenshin), MC Jin (Gallants) and comedian Jimmy O. Yang (Silicon Valley), are also part of the cast.
The U.S., Canada, U.K. and Ireland rollout will include the original-language version and a newly produced English dub featuring voice performances by the aforementioned Chow, Jimmy O. Yang and MC Jin.
🔥 Footnote: When Shaolin Soccer hit theaters in 2001, it became an instant hit. It broke Hong Kong box office records, earning over HK$60 million and becoming the highest-grossing local film in the city at the time. What started as a major Hong Kong success quickly grew into an international cult favorite. Miramax Films brought the movie to U.S. audiences on DVD in 2004, introducing mainstream viewers to Stephen Chow’s signature blend of comedy, action, and heart.
Check your local listings for details. If you haven’t already, check out the Trailer:
50/50 chance this is good. While The Mermaid was a slightly different Mainland flavoured version classic Chow it felt like a Stephen Chow movie even if the CG was terrible. New King of Comedy on the pther hand was a total misfire. Unfunny and oddly mean spirited, it did itself no favors by referencing iconic moments from the first movie either.
Released it in the U.S.? Where? I think you’re mixing up Miramaxe and Shaolin Soccer with Sony and Kung Fu Hustle, which did get a proper release.
The DVD was released by Miramax Films.
I mean theatrical.
A little too late, maybe, Stephen…
And I think most people wanted to see you back in…Kung fu hustle…
Hopefully, Stephen will let Wellgo have it.
Hope it’s better than the 2016 Ghostbusters.
Another fragile male chauvinist Trumper who can’t handle a movie led by women.
Hey, I took one for the team to save you the trouble of seeing that Ghostbusters.
What has Trump to do with anything on this comment section? Ghostbusters 2016 wasn’t good at all, Ocean’s 8 was just trying to capitalise on the trilogy’s success, however, Captain Marvel, Wonder woman, Wanda Vision, Atomic blonde and even Black Widow were quite good. There is no need for foul language anywhere, just because someone said an opinion, which isn’t the same as yours. People have different opinions and visions too, let us be respectful to one another, and have a nice discussion about our favourite genre, without having to resort to rude remarks in the process.
Thank you in anticipation
You took the words right from out of my mouth. It’s always Mr. Trump’s fault. It’s always the white person’s fault. It’s always this, it’s always that. I’m Chinese, married to a Chinese woman, and Nancy Lo has mental issues.
Seriously, of all the random places to come to start trolling, the comments section of cityonfire.com has got to be one of the strangest places to do it!
100% Nancy Lo is a troll larping as an Asian woman. Its some dude who normally uses phrases like cope harder, laughing at all of us for replying to the ragebait. Must be a 4D chess move at owning “woke libtards”
Anyone else notice that the appearance of Nancy Lo coincided with an extended absence from Anonymous? Perhaps he’s discovered the art of irony as his new form of trolling. 🙂
I liked the 2016 Ghostbusters.
A bit sterile, especially in the scenes on the football field, in Shaolin soccer these were more organic and smooth. I hope it will be an entertaining at least, but I doubt it will reach the cult status of its predecessor.
Can’t wait to see this one. The Spielberg of Asia rarely misses. And any movie that puts strong Asian women front and center has my full support.
It just looks…bad. And not funny at all.
Stephen is an opportunist here (Hey, football world cup, let’s do a sequel to a 25 year old movie!
Sad…
At least it’s not Bend it like Beckham 2.
I’ll definitely see it when it comes out here but I don’t have high hopes. Stephen Chow’s humour works better a) in Cantonese and b) with Stephen Chow and Ng Man Tat. Shen Teng is the king of Mandarin comedy right now, and while he’s legitimately hilarious, it’s a very different style of comedy. All of Chow’s Mandarin films have felt like Mainland actors doing Stephen Chow impersonations, and while they’re not bad, it just makes you miss the man himself – he’s irreplaceable. Also, apparently there are guest appearances by MC Jin and Jimmy O Yang, which just turns the cringe factor up to 11.
(Unrelated, but it’s a crime that Ng Man Tat’s last big film, The Wandering Earth, felt the need to dub over his performance. His voice is so distinctive (like Stephen Chow’s or Jackie Chan’s), that dubbing just robs his performance of its power.)
Chow walked away from acting and went out on a relative high….CJ7 while not great at least he played a different type of role. Not just the underdog or the asshole with an ego who needs to be put in his place before he starts his redemption journey.
In this respect Chow should have retired from directing as well after The Mermaid. Again this was a perfectly respectable to have this as your last directorial effort.
Remaking/rebooting/legacy sequelling/ whatever you want to call his old classics twice in a row just shows that he’s creatively empty at the moment.
And as you rightly point out Chow was the star but he had great talent in front and behind the camera backing him up during his imperial phase. Now we have to put with Jimmy O Yang and MC sqaured. I don’t mind him in a youtube short but in a Stephen Chow movie??? I’m ready to be wrong. At best surely it will only seem like a pale imitation of the original. At worst its gonna get called the woke virus by protein shake chuds
OK, I’m willing to admit I was 100% wrong on this. The frankly terrible trailers and the very lacklustre marketing really did the film a disservice. It looked loud, shouty, with terrible graphics and unfunny humour.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but here goes…I think it’s just as good, if not better than the original Shaolin Soccer.
This film had heart, an emotional throughline that resonated, and actors that were strong enough to handle both the comedy and the drama. The cartoonish nature of some of the CGI seemed absolutely purposeful, and of a piece with Chow’s own preferences. The jokes landed, and judging from the unrestrained guffawing in the audience in the cinema, they landed for most. Plus, there were some great callbacks not only to Shaolin Soccer (most notably in the score), but also to Fist of Fury, and even one particularly on point tribute to The King of Comedy that was both hilarious and crucial to the plot (IYKYK). The tag with the original team at the end was just the cherry on top.
I’ve never seen anything with Zhang Xiaofei, but she absolutely slayed as the co-lead. And Dilraba, an actress I’d previously dismissed as being a mere flower vase, turned out to be the most charismatic of the cast. Sisley Choi was gut-bustingly funny as the team’s blind masseuse/physio who channeled Bruce Lee.
Lay Zhang showed that he can act – switching from heartthrob to scumbag to hero with convincing and effortless ease.
For me, the MVP of the cast was the funny fat guy who played the team’s chef. His comedic skills were spot-on – like a throwback to the best of the Stephen Chow years. I didn’t recognise him at all, and I had to look him up afterwards…
….turns out he is in fact, the legendary action director Qin Pengfei, the man who has essentially singlehandedly revived Chinese kung fu action cinema. Is there anything this man can’t do?
I went into this film with rock-bottom expectations and came out a believer. Stephen Chow can still conjure the old magic, and what a pleasure it is to see.
*MC Jin’s appearance is irrelevant, and Jimmy O Yang’s scene sees him play the straight man to a hilarious Qin Pengfei, and none of it detracted in the slightest. Louis Cheung is great as the referee whose head is easily turned by the sexy Korean gals. Carina Lau brings gravitas (and a welcome sprinkling of Cantonese) to her role as the head grandmaster of Emei. Just a great film and one to rewatch.
Looks like it’s a hit in China. https://deadline.com/2026/07/stephen-chow-kung-fu-soccer-opening-china-box-office-1236980601/
I love ❤️ you
I love ❤️ you u all
Watching from India
For anyone who saw Dragon Ball Evolution, did Shenron appear? And, if so did he suck, compared to the dragon in the first Kung Fu Soccer trailer posted at the top? Stephen said he didn’t want to take a hands-on approach with someone else’s material, but I really do wonder what would have happened if he directed instead of bringing back Journey to the West.
Never mind. I Googled the still. Eww.
Screen Daily seemed to hate it. https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/kung-fu-soccer-review-stephen-chows-chinese-box-office-hit-is-poor-imitation-of-his-early-classics/5219370.article
the film being good or not is irrelavant really. China now has 40 times more cinema screens than they had back in 2004. The possibilty of making up to 40x the boxoffice of kungfu Hustle in China would tempt anyone to go back to the well.
The biggest hit for the summer in China, according to Variety. https://variety.com/2026/film/box-office/kung-fu-soccer-china-summer-box-office-1236849100/
Chow’s next movie will either be a Kung Fu Hustle remake where the Axe gang and the Chow stand-in team up against the evil Japanese/colonialist gweilo.
Or it will be God of Cookery 2 which will be a beat for beat remake except the winning dish isnt charsiu rice (too southern, too Cantonese), it will be some working class dongbei dish like di san xian
You know, I was pleasantly surprised they didn’t make hay out of the national identities of the teams. Yes, the Peach Blossom team was clearly Korean, and the Grand River team was Japanese, but there wasn’t any of the normal flag waving, chest thumping rivalry. Just teams going at it on the pitch, then shaking hands and showing respect afterwards. I thought that was quite refreshing – the true adversary the Emei team had to battle was their own mindset, and not a cartoonishly evil, American steroid-enhanced Team Evil.
The only reason Stephen Chow couldn’t Dante Lam the movie is because they couldn’t embarass the men’s national soccer team anymore. Its a mandate from the top, especially after they lost 5-0 to Palestine!!!!
Absolute crapfest of a movie. CG in movies have hit a new low. Looks worse than the FX in Shaolin Soccer 25 years ago and in many shots the actors look worse than the digital Keanu of Matrix 2 doing their kungfu soccer special moves. How tf did this make so much money in China. The crowd 30% rendered and looks like it was cut and paste from Fifa 94. They are so lazy they cant even be bothered to shoot on an actual soccer field. The whole thing is green screen. 12 writers are credited – i guess 11 were doing lines of cocaine and one of them asked deepseek to write the movie