Kung Fu Soccer, new film from Hong Kong’s Stephen Chow, strays offside in South Korea
Comedy described as a gender-swapped spin-off of the actor-director’s 2001 classic, Shaolin Soccer, has sparked controversy among Koreans
Hong Kong actor-director Stephen Chow Sing-chi’s latest sports comedy, Kung Fu Soccer, has sparked controversy in South Korea over allegations that it deliberately parodies the country’s women’s national football team.
Written and directed by the comedy veteran, the film, widely seen as a nod to his 2001 classic Shaolin Soccer, crossed 1.3 billion yuan (US$1912 million) at the mainland box office on Sunday, just nine days after its release.
Surprisingly, the most intense reaction came from South Korean internet users rather than local audiences.
Three days after the film’s release, Seo Kyoung-duk, a professor at South Korea’s Sungshin Women’s University, posted on Facebook claiming the film featured scenes that “appear to disparage the Korean women’s football team”.
Seo alleged that “numerous” such scenes appeared in both the trailer and the feature film, pointing to an opposing team named the “Ewha Women’s Football Team”, which shares its name with Seoul’s Ewha Womans University.