Shaolin Soccer
Directed by Stephen Chow
After a fateful mistake costing his career, an ex-soccer player bum meets a shaolin kung fu student trying to spread the word of kung fu. The ex-soccer player helps reconcile with his five brothers, and teaches them soccer, adding shaolin kung fu as a twist.
Where to Watch Shaolin Soccer
Shaolin Soccer Ratings & Reviews
- cultfilmlikerMarch 30, 2026Iron Head is one of the greatest characters and greatest actors! Magnificent. The war scene is top tier Hate to admit it but this is my first time not seeing the bastardized American cut. Kinda wanna give it a rewatch to see how it stacks up tho! I’m ngl I think it contains quite a few more jokes, as dumb as they are Featured in Slapstick Fantastic Featured in The Non-English Niche
- RichardOctober 19, 2025I didn’t know what I was in for, just that it was called Shaolin Soccer and that alone sounded like a dare. What I got was pure Chow: slapstick, sincerity and CGI chaos wrapped in a story about brotherhood, redemption and kicking a football so hard it bends reality. Stephen Chow plays Sing, a Shaolin monk with a dream of spreading kung fu through soccer. He reunites his old brothers, each with a ridiculous skill set and they form a team to take on the corrupt, steroid fueled Team Evil. The result? A sports movie that feels like Dragon Ball Z met The Mighty Ducks in a fever dream. This was my gateway to Chow’s world, where absurdity meets heart and every punchline lands with a kung fu flourish. The effects are gloriously over the top, the characters are cartoonish in the best way and the emotional beats sneak up on you between flying kicks and exploding goalposts. Watching it felt like discovering a new genre: nonsense comedy with soul. And once I saw it, I had to hunt down everything else he made. Kung Fu Hustle, CJ7, The Mermaid, all roads lead back to this one. Shaolin Soccer is where Stephen Chow kicked open the door to my comedy brain. I laughed, I cheered and I never looked at football the same way again.
- Cineit.blogOctober 12, 2025Look, everyone told me Shaolin Soccer was a comedy masterpiece. I'm here to tell you it's... not. At least not for me. Maybe it's my lifelong hatred of soccer, or maybe Stephen Chow's "nonsense comedy" is just a little too nonsensical, but this movie felt incredibly childish and, honestly, pretty f***ing stupid. I get that the CGI was a big deal at the time, and the ending has a nice little message about tradition beating corruption. But man, sitting through the rest of it was a real drag. If you're not a fan of the sport, you might want to sit this one out.
Shaolin Soccer Trivia
Shaolin Soccer was released on July 5, 2001.
Shaolin Soccer was directed by Stephen Chow.
Shaolin Soccer has a runtime of 1h 53m.
Shaolin Soccer was produced by Yeung Kwok-Fai.
After a fateful mistake costing his career, an ex-soccer player bum meets a shaolin kung fu student trying to spread the word of kung fu. The ex-soccer player helps reconcile with his five brothers, and teaches them soccer, adding shaolin kung fu as a twist.
The key characters in Shaolin Soccer are Mighty Steel Leg / Sing (Stephen Chow), Fung (Richard Ng Man-Tat), Mui (Vicky Zhao).
Shaolin Soccer is rated PG.
Shaolin Soccer is an Action, Comedy, Fantasy film.
Shaolin Soccer has an audience rating of 8.4 out of 10.
Shaolin Soccer had a budget of $10M.
Shaolin Soccer has made $42.8M at the box office.