My favorite living actor is the Hong Kong legend Chow Yun-Fat. His heroic bloodshed gangster films with John Woo turned me into a Hong Kong superfan. I’m also a big fan of Jackie Chan. His kung fu action-comedies eventually led to him being one of the biggest movie stars in the world. But did you know that when they were at the peaks of their careers in Hong Kong in the early 90’s, neither was the biggest star in their homeland? Nope! The true box office champion in Hong Kong was the comedian Stephen Chow. From 1990-1995, Stephen Chow led the box office every year except 1994, when Chow Yun-Fat barely edged him out. In the 2000’s, Stephen didn’t make a lot of movies, but when he did, they were record breaking box office smashes. The first of those was SHAOLIN SOCCER.

The film has a pretty simple concept… a former soccer great, known as Golden Leg Fung (Ng Man-Tat), has been down on his luck for 20 years after his leg was broken in a soccer match. Drunk and at his lowest, he runs into the Mighty Steel Leg Sing (Stephen Chow), a poor Shaolin disciple who spends his time trying to figure out a way to make the teachings of Shaolin popular again. When Fung sees the power with which Sing can kick a soccer ball, he comes up with the idea of recruiting and coaching a soccer team of Shaolin kung fu masters. He wants to challenge Team Evil, the reigning Chinese soccer champions, and their arrogant Coach Hung (Patrick Tse), the man responsible for his crippled leg. Can they win the Chinese Cup, restore the legend of Golden Leg Fung, and bring Shaolin Kung Fu into the modern world? 

No matter what you think of my summary above, I can assure you that it doesn’t even come close to doing the film justice. What may sound like just a kung fu comedy is actually a kung fu comedy, a sports movie, and an effects driven, fantastical live-action cartoon all rolled up into one. As funny as I thought he was in the James Bond parody FROM BEIJING WITH LOVE (1995), writer-director Stephen Chow proves himself to be a comedic genius with SHAOLIN SOCCER. Apparently the citizens of Hong Kong agreed as the film broke all of their previous box office records when it was released in the summer of 2001. Chow would break his own records a few years later when he wrote, directed and starred in the international hit KUNG FU HUSTLE (2004).

As the film kicks into gear, we’re treated to a succession of “Magnificent Seven” like scenes where Fung and Sing try to build their soccer team from Sing’s former Shaolin “brothers.” These aren’t obvious badasses like Charles Bronson and James Coburn, though. These guys may be Shaolin masters, but in the world they live in now, they’re a bunch of beaten down losers. They all initially turn the guys down due to their complete lack of confidence in themselves, but something has undeniably stirred in them again. With Fung and Sing sitting alone and thinking all hope is lost, Chow brilliantly parodies John Woo, and the brothers join them in stylish, wind blown slow-mo!

Once the Shaolin masters get together on the team, director Stephen Chow cranks up the CGI and special effects to 10 to illustrate their true powers. This is all done for entertainment purposes, so don’t expect anything that resembles real soccer. Their first practice begins with Mighty Steel Leg Sing kicking a ball straight up in the air, so the team just has to hang out and take naps while they wait for the ball to finally come back down. As the guys discover their true CGI-enhanced Shaolin soccer superpowers, they seem unbeatable… that is, until they run back into the superdrug-enhanced Team Evil and their unethical coach Hung. Part of the fun of these types of movies is in seeing how they deal with adversity and overcome the bigger, badder team. I want to shout out Patrick Tse, who played Coach Hung. He’s deliriously over-the-top here, and we definitely want to see him get his comeuppance. One of the reasons I decided to rewatch SHAOLIN SOCCER is to celebrate Tse, who passed away on July 16th, 2026, at the age of 89, after a 7-decade film career in Hong Kong. Rest in peace, sir. 

I think that the best thing I can say for this film is that underneath the entertaining craziness of the comedy and special effects is a sweet underdog story of unappreciated greatness being unleashed. The various characters may seem like jokes in their day to day lives, but they’re not, and it’s a joy to behold as the world sees how special they really are. This theme runs through several of Stephen Chow’s films. In his best movies, he doesn’t just prove that he’s a brilliant comedian, but he also shows us that he’s got a good heart.