Hong Kong actor Stephen Chow Sing-chi’s latest sports comedy, Kung Fu Soccer, has sparked controversy in South Korea for allegedly making fun of the country’s national women’s soccer team.
Written and directed by the comedy veteran, the film, which is widely seen as a follow-up to his 2001 classic. Shaolin Soccercrossed 1.3 billion yuan (1912 million US dollars) at the mainland box office on Sunday, just nine days after its release.
Surprisingly, the strongest reaction came from South Korean netizens rather than the local audience.
Three days after the film’s release, Seo Kyoung-duk, a professor at South Korea’s Sungshin Women’s University, posted on Facebook claiming that the film contained scenes that “seem to disparage the Korean women’s soccer team”.
Seo claimed that “many” such scenes were seen in the trailer and feature film, pointing to a rival team called the “Ewha Women’s Soccer Team”, which shares its name with Seoul’s Ewha Womans University.
