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.

"Golden Leg" Fung, a Hong Kong soccer star, beats and berates his teammate Hung when the latter offers him a cheque to lose the game, claiming to be the middleman.

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.

Team Shaolin enters the open cup competition in Hong Kong, where they see ridiculously one-sided victories due to their powers.

A large ad on the side of a building shows that Sing and Mui, a famous couple, have won the world championship in bowling, among other things.

[4] According to an interview with Premiere Magazine, Chow stated, Actually the 'over the top' CG and kinetic soccer moves were an inspiration that came from the classic Japanese manga series Captain Tsubasa.

But it was only possible with pen and ink back then, now with the advent of CGI, it can really be done....(the idea of combining it with Kung Fu was in my head for many years but we had to wait for the CG technology to mature)[5]Chow had intended for this film to appeal to a global audience, stating, "I can't rely on the local market, because it's too small, so since Shaolin Soccer it's always my ambition to go international".

Tin Kai-man (Iron Shirt) had been Chow's production manager on several movies, but had acted in numerous minor roles in previous films.

Cecilia Cheung and Karen Mok, who briefly appear as Team Dragon Players 7 & 11 in Shaolin Soccer, had major roles in King of Comedy.

Fung Min-hun (Team Rebellion Captain) briefly appeared as Cecilia Cheung's abusive boyfriend in King of Comedy and the Four Eyes Clerk who beats up both Sing and Bone when they make fun of him on the bus in Kung Fu Hustle.

At the Hong Kong box office, Shaolin Soccer grossed HK$60,739,847, making it the highest-grossing film in the region's history at the time.

[18] Chow disagreed with the Chinese Communist Party's National Radio and Television Administration, which was concerned that the film's title would insult Buddhists.

[20][21] ComicsOne approached noted comic book artist Andy Seto with the idea of creating a two volume manhua-style graphic novel adaptation of the feature film.

[25][26] Seto worked to make the novel as faithful to the film as possible but he admits that Stephen Chow's brand of Mo lei tau comedy does not translate well into illustrations.

"[22] This new content includes a backstory about Steel Leg's training in Shaolin before the death of his master, as well as completely rewriting entire sections of the movie.

For example, in the film a group of bar thugs beat up Sing and Iron Head after listening to their lounge-style tribute to Shaolin kung fu.

All of their comic book personas look to be in their twenties to thirties, with highly toned athletic physiques (with the exception of Light Weight); even Iron Head, who was the eldest of the six brothers, appears younger than he should.

Several online reviews have criticised the American adaptation for its apparent lack of story line coherence, mixture of realistic and cartoonish drawing styles, and bad Chinese-to-English translation, among other issues.