Well this story comes as a bit of a surprise. We had heard a while back that Stephen Chow was considering a sequel to his last film Kung Fu Hustle, but what we hadn’t heard about was the possibility of a Shaolin Soccer 2 — until now. It turns out that there is a Shaolin sequel in the works, although Chow himself will not be directing. He has handed over the reins to Katsuyuki Motohiro (Udon, Bayside Shakedown), but will remain on board as producer. The movie’s only connection to the original, would seem to be in the title Shaolin Girl, and the basic premise as a sports comedy. None of the other characters from the first movie will be involved, although frequent Chow collaborators Lam Tze Chung and Kai Man Tin are expected to have roles.

Here’s the thing that I found pretty shocking. Instead of soccer, this time around the central sport will be the fine Canadian summer pastime of lacrosse! I didn’t know that anyone else in the world even knew what lacrosse was. Shibasaki Ko (Dororo, Battle Royale) will star as Rin, “who returns to Japan after undergoing nine years of training in order to take over her grandfather’s Shaolin kung-fu dojo in China and ends up helping out a sport science university’s lacrosse team”. Well, I guess it can’t be any more silly than the original, right?