Kung Fu Soccer – Hong Kong film star and director Stephen Chow’s long-awaited sequel to 2001 global hit Shaolin Soccer – has come under fire over scenes that appear to mock the South Korean women’s national soccer team, according to news reports on July 17.
Released in China on July 11, the film centres on a struggling women’s soccer team that uses martial arts techniques in an unlikely bid for success. Its takings surpassed 600mil yuan at the box office within three days of its release, according to Chinese media outlets.
The controversial scenes feature a South Korean women’s soccer team called the Ewha Women’s Soccer Team, which play against the protagonists and resort to a series of fouls and underhanded tactics. The team’s name evokes Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
The players are also shown wearing “circle” contact lenses, which make the wearer’s irises look bigger, and obsessing over their make-up. The scenes feature Korean dialogue delivered in an exaggeratedly awkward manner, according to online reviews of the film.
Seo Kyung-duk, a professor at Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul and an outspoken activist on issues related to South Korean sovereignty, criticised the scenes, saying that even in the realm of fiction, such portrayals could reinforce misconceptions about Korean culture.
“During the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the Beijing Municipal Radio and Television Bureau released the short-track film Fly! Light On The Ice, which depicted Korean athletes as habitual foulers. It is concerning to see similar cases recurring,” Seo told a local news outlet.
“The production team should correct the controversial scenes before the film is released overseas next month,” he added. – The Korea Herald/ANN
