Shaolin Soccer
2001 film by Stephen Chow
Shaolin Soccer (Chinese: 少林足球) is a 2001 Hong Kong sports comedy film directed by Stephen Chow, who also stars in the lead role. The film revolves around a former Shaolin monk who reunites his five brothers, years after their master's death, to apply their superhuman martial arts skills to play soccer and bring Shaolin kung fu to the masses. Over the years the film has grown as a cult film. A standalone sequel, Kung Fu Soccer, was released in 2026.
Plot
In an opening flashback scene, "Golden Leg" Fung, a Soccer star in the 1980s, misses a penalty kick in a crucial game. It transpires that he had been manipulated by his teammate Hung, who had made a large bet against his own team and offered Fung a piece of the proceeds if he missed the kick on purpose. After missing the kick, angry spectators attack Fung and break his leg.
Twenty years later, Fung walks with a limp and is the mistreated lackey of Hung, now a successful businessman. When Fung asks to coach Hung's soccer squad, Hung mocks him and reveals that he tricked him with a bad cheque and hired those who broke his leg. While drinking his sorrows in the streets, Fung comes across Sing, a Shaolin kung fu master who wants to promote the practical benefits of the martial art to the world.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Shaolin Soccer” is 2001 film by Stephen Chow. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Shaolin, Soccer and film, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “2001 film by Stephen Chow” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q536299. 1 of 31 selected statements include explicit references; 31 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2001 and 2026.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Shaolin Soccer”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Shaolin Soccer primary sources, Shaolin Soccer archive and Shaolin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Shaolin Soccer”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Shaolin Soccer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.