Song Kang-ho, Dilireba, Zhang Yixing join Stephen Chow's 'Kung Fu Women's Soccer' opening in China

Kung Fu Women's Soccer (功夫女足) opened nationwide in China on July 11. Director Stephen Chow (Zhou Xingchi) hasn't made a feature since 2019's The New King of Comedy. His last soccer film was 2001's Shaolin Soccer, over 20 years ago.

Zhang Xiaofei, a Golden Rooster Award Best Actress winner, plays team captain and goalkeeper "Shuangshuang." She cut her long hair and trained for six months to get ready. Dilireba gained 8 kg and spent three months learning soccer to play starting forward "Yurong." Zhang Yixing, an actor and EXO member, did most of his own high-difficulty action scenes. Japanese actor Sato Takeru is also in the cast.

Two original Shaolin Soccer cast members show up: Lin Zizhong and Huang Yifei. The big one is Song Kang-ho, who plays the referee in the final match. Former Chinese women's national team players Zhao Lina and Li Zawei appear on screen and worked as technical consultants.

Chow spent 380 million yuan (approximately 84.2 billion won) on this film—his biggest budget ever. Actor fees took up about 15% of that total, well below the industry standard of 30–40%. More than half the budget went to over 1,200 CG special effects scenes.

Pre-sales reached 40 million yuan by 9 AM on July 9. The timing is rough. China's box office in the first half of this year hit 17.3 billion yuan, down nearly 40% from the year before.