[2206.07.18] STEPHEN CHOW HINTS AT KUNG FU SOCCER SEQUEL DESPITE "BOX OFFICE THEFT"

Sisley Choi recently participates in the Shenzhen stop of the promotion and interacts with mainland audiences
courtesy of on.cc

Stephen Chow hints at a KUNG FU SOCCER sequel while thanking an audience at a mainland cinema

Stephen Chow posts 6 stories in a row on social media, forwarding many screen captured photos of viewers with handwritten tickets from watching KUNG FU SOCCER with 3 question marks to express his confusion

The animated film ALL WISHES COME TRUE's machine printed ticket had its title changed by hand to KUNG FU SOCCER

KUNG FU SOCCER after 7 days in release has exceeded 1 billion yuan RMB at the mainland box office
courtesy of mingpao.com

The Stephen Chow Sing Chi directed new film KUNG FU SOCCER (GONG FU NUI JOOK) has been a box office success, but at the same time a lot of pirated recordings have appeared. Even its box office theft has been suspected. In view of the rampant situation, even Chow Sing Chi could not help but fight back! The film has been released in the mainland. Many online were surprised by Sisley Choi Si Bui's performance. When she appeared at the Shenzhen stop of the promotional tour the day before yesterday, she received even more praise from Chow Sing Chi's action scenes for having shades of Bruce Lee!

The Chow Sing Chi directed film KUNG FU SOCCER (GONG FU NUI JOOK) after 7 days in release received the box office of 1.05 billion yuan (about 1.215 billion Hong Kong dollars)! In recent days Chow Sing Chi led the team to promote in Tianjin, Changsha, Chengdu, Hangzhou and other places. Earlier he went to the last stop in Shenzhen with Lay Zhang Yixing, Choi Si Bui, Xue Ye, Lam Tsz Chung and Chan Kwok Kwan.

Playing a blind massage therapist and reserve goalkeeper in the film, Choi Si Bui's role turned out to be quite heavy. Transformed into "iron goalkeeper" she reversed the team's momentum. She also beat up the team owner in many scene, regardless of the expression or action she was right on target and received online praises as excellent. No wonder during the promotion in Shenzhen, Chow Sing Chi praised her by name in particular. "Double 8 (the role of Choi Si Bui) played such a good fighter for the first time, and was able to fight like Bruce Lee. I really haven't seen anything like that, there is an actress who can fight so much like Bruce Lee. Isn't she great!" Choi Si Bui after receiving such praise immediately bowed twice and thanked him repeatedly.

Speaking of the team owner beating scene being praised, Choi Si Bui smiled and said, "Seeing everyone having so much fun, it was all worth it. Because we really fought all night, from dark to dawn I constantly beat the team owner. Actually I was sorry, but during the shoot I really thought that if I didn't hit hard, everyone would not be happy. I had to do it, and I had to hit hard."

KUNG's box office was good, online piracy has also been overwhelming. Recently appeared a large number of handwritten movie tickets, suspected of being "box office theft". Even Chow Sing Chi could not help but send 6 limited-time stories on the social network, sharing the audience's post of the KUNG handwritten cinema tickets. One was even written for 11 people, some online posted, "Were tickets of 11 people stolen" Chow Sing Chi while forwarded the post added 3 question marks, the suspicion was so deep that no more needed to be said.

The so-called "box office theft" is to transfer the box office number of the film to another film, the way is when the audience to buy film A (mostly a big hit movie) tickets, but the ticket printed by the cinema system is for film B (most of the unpopular film or cinema self- operated film), resulting in film A box office revenue was forced to join film B's to increase the data of film B. This time the theater owners used blank movie ticket with handwritten titles for theft, it would be difficult to estimate who is the beneficiary. In one of the screenshots shared by Chow Sing Chi, it was actually for an animated film "ALL WISHES COME TRUE!" The staff curiously changed the ticket to KUNG FU SOCCER. ALL WISHES COME TRUE was a mythological animated film based on the Chinese folklore EIGHT IMMORTALS CROSS THE SEA. It officially releases in the mainland today. Starting on July 14th it began a limited advanced run, the estimated box office as of yesterday afternoon has already exceeded 80 million yuan RMB (around HK$ 92.8 million).

The film company earlier issued a statement to clearly condemn the box office theft and fraudulent box office reporting, and began a nationwide reporting. It said that once confirmed the company would cease all collaboration with the cinemas in violation. According to related mainland regulation, each film ticket must go through a nationally uniform ticketing system. The ticket revenue would officially enter the profit sharing process, in the ratio that the cinema, the circuit, the film company and the national special fund for film development have agreed about. As for "box office stealing", the term referred to cinemas through technological methods or regulation violating operation to make the ticket revenue not enter the uniform system through methods like "system malfunction" and handwritten tickets as proof of admission in lieu of printed tickets and hence avoid profit sharing. The behavior of intercepting the revenue directly prevents the film company from receiving the box office share that it deserves, the national film special fund and tax loss, and also harms the audience's consumer rights. Some cinemas also privately transferred hit film's box office revenue to other stipulated films. KUNG FU SOCER still had to face the severe piracy situation, as some online discovered over 50 minutes of pirated livestreaming on video platforms and led to concerns for film copyright protection.

In addition, earlier the film company uniformly replaced the optimized layout source of the theaters yesterday. In addition to trimming the hedges, it will further refine the special effect scenes but the length of the film remains unchanged. It was rare for the film source to be replaced during the release of the film, which was a testament to Chow Sing Chi's meticulousness on the new film!

"Team Emei" in KUNG fought with many teams to create a series of wonderful scenes, but also became involved in international controversy. Some South Korean media and netizens questioned the insinuation of the South Korean soccer team, and there was a suspicion of vilifying the image of South Korean sports. Whether the film could be successfully released there has become the focus.

Korean netizens pointed out that KUNG has an overseas team called "Team Ewha", which was suspected to be the famous local school Ewha Women's University. In the film, the team's players repeatedly maliciously fouled during the game, and even used their "beauty" to seduce and bribe referees, etc., upsetting South Korean audiences. Some media even pointed out that the film was suspected of insinuating the 2002 World Cup-related controversial events and shaping the negative image of the Korean team. In addition, the team was once rumored to have invited Korean Best Actor Song Kang-ho to play a referee who favored the Korean side but was rejected. After the news came out, the film was criticized by local netizens, who was disappointed. "I hope this film will never be released in South Korea."

With the success of the new film, many fans are begging for a sequel. While promoting in the mainland, Chow Sing Chi was asked what his next movie would be about. He hinted, "Team Emei wants to beat the whole world, currently they only beat half. In the future it still has to keep beating the other half." He personally hinted that KUNG FU SOCCER 2 would be made.

Chow Sing Chi also revealed two "hidden settings" and Easter eggs to the audience, saying that the aunties who were playing mahjong with "Mother Superior" all were "secret martial art masters" who deliberately held back their powers. Their shocking real kung fu would not be officially revealed until later. In the KUNG FU SOCCER end credit Easter egg, Chow Sing Chi and Lam Tsz Chung made a surprise appearance in their SHAOLIN SOCCER look and tossed out the line, "Then let's play them once!" Viewers looked forward to a sequel with "SHAOLIN SOCCER VS. EMEI SOCCER". Lead actress Zhang Xiaofei quickly said about the opportunity for KUNG FU SOCCER to make a sequel, "If Sing Yeh dares to make it, I dare to go!"

Chow Sing Chi's other work has also become hot topics. Among them MERMAID 2 (MEI YUN YU 2) still has not yet been released after 8 years.  Kris Wu Yifan and Show Luo's negative news was rumored to be the cause, leading a lot of the movie to be unusable. The script would also have to start over, spending a lot of resources on the reshoot.

As a part of the first film, Show Luo recently made a rare clarification. "Report report, I am not in MERMAID 2. Thank you for the concern, friends in the media."