In 2023, Hong Kong actor-director Stephen Chow (周星驰) teased fans with the announcement of his comeback film, “Shaolin Women’s Soccer (少林女足)”. After nearly two years of waiting, the highly anticipated movie has reportedly started filming.
According to reports, Stephen was recently spotted at a sports stadium in China to begin production on the film. “Shaolin Women’s Soccer” is the sequel to the 2001 movie, “Shaolin Soccer”. The cast of the upcoming movie is rumoured to include Dilraba Dalmurat (迪丽热巴), Zhang Yixing (张艺兴), Zhang Xiaofei (张小斐), and Song Kang-ho (송강호). Retired Chinese football player Zhao Lina (趙麗娜) is also rumoured to appear.
Not much has been revealed about the filming yet. However, sources said the new movie will have just as many stunts as its predecessor. Pictures of the filming set have made their way online, showing a lot of safety gear and steel wires. Some videos taken during the filming also confirmed many action scenes, with one clip clearly showing one of the actresses “flying” across the football field.
News of the filming also went viral because of Stephen’s sweet gesture for the staff. Shortly after production began, a crew member posted a picture of a red packet (ang pau) they received from the star. It’s believed the 62-year-old gave out red packets to all the staff on the movie set to show gratitude for their work. The staff also revealed that the red packet contained RMB200 (approximately RM132), which netizens said is rather generous.
Since filming began earlier this month, the movie may be looking at a late 2025 or early 2026 release. However, nothing has been set in place for the release date. Regardless, fans have already voiced excitement for the movie, especially since it’s Stephen’s first work in years. His last movie, “The New King Of Comedy (新喜剧之王)”, was released in 2019 and was a remake of his 1999 film, “King Of Comedy (喜劇之王)”.
For now, we can only wait for more information about “Shaolin Women’s Soccer” to come out – but what are your thoughts on this? Are you also excited about the movie?
Here are some videos from the movie set:
Sources: Oriental Daily, Xiaohongshu (1)(2)(3)