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| Kung Fu Soccer: Stephen Chow Reveals Why Dilraba Dilmurat Was His Perfect Choice |
Stephen Chow has revealed that his decision to cast Dilraba Dilmurat in Kung Fu Soccer was based on something he had noticed long before the pair ever worked together: her ability to handle comedy without worrying too much about looking polished.
The filmmaker says he had been watching her acting for around a decade and remembered being particularly struck by how far she was willing to push a joke, making her eventual casting feel less like a sudden decision and more like a very long-running mental note.
In a recent interview with Hong Kong media, Stephen Chow recalled seeing Dilraba in a drama roughly 10 years ago and immediately noticing something unusual about her performance.
Rather than simply seeing a glamorous leading actress, he spotted someone with a strong instinct for exaggerated comedy. His reaction was memorable enough to survive all these years, with Chow recalling: “She was even more over-the-top than I was. I remember thinking, ‘How can she do that?’”
That is quite an endorsement coming from the man behind Shaolin Soccer, especially when being completely ridiculous on screen has practically been part of his professional toolkit.
Chow's praise suggests that what attracted him to Dilraba was not simply her enormous popularity or established status, but her willingness to abandon the polished image audiences might normally expect from her when a scene demands something much sillier.
According to Chow, that quality became even clearer once filming for Kung Fu Soccer began. He praised Dilraba for having no particular attachment to maintaining an idol-like image on set and for being prepared to do whatever a scene required.
“She has no hang-ups about being an idol on set. She’s willing to do anything, and she’s very professional and very good,” he said.
For Dilraba Dilmurat, that willingness to look foolish for the sake of a joke is particularly significant because her screen image has often leaned towards glamour and polished leading roles.
Kung Fu Soccer gives her considerably more room to embrace physical comedy, exaggerated reactions and the kind of deliberately chaotic performance that requires an actor to forget about looking effortlessly cool. In other words, the film apparently asked her to protect the joke rather than the hairstyle.
The response from fans has naturally been mixed, with some viewers enjoying the idea of seeing Dilraba step into a broader comedic role while others remain more attached to the polished image they are accustomed to seeing from her.
There is also curiosity around the pairing itself, as Stephen Chow has built an unmistakable reputation for comedy that thrives on exaggerated characters and deliberately absurd situations. Putting that style together with one of China's best-known actresses was always likely to produce plenty of conversation.
The film itself marks Stephen Chow's return to the football-and-martial-arts comedy territory associated with Shaolin Soccer, which arrived 25 years ago and became one of his defining films.
Kung Fu Soccer takes that basic spirit into a new story centred on the Emei women's football team, bringing together Zhang Xiaofei, Dilraba Dilmurat and Lay Zhang, also known as Zhang Yixing, as the team attempts to combine martial arts skills with football in pursuit of a championship.
Released in China on 11 July 2026, Kung Fu Soccer quickly established itself as one of the major films of the country's summer cinema season. It led the summer box office during the early part of the campaign before other high-profile releases began putting pressure on the top positions.
That early performance helped make the film one of the defining commercial stories of the 2026 summer period, giving Chow's return rather more momentum than a nostalgic trip back to his old football pitch.
The film's impact was also felt across the wider July box office. Figures cited in the supplied material put China's July total at 5.019 billion yuan, compared with 4.067 billion yuan in July the previous year.
That broader rise gave the summer season plenty of reason to celebrate, although the competition was hardly taking a polite afternoon stroll. Major releases continued to arrive, keeping the race for the top-performing films lively as the season moved towards its final weeks.
Among the other prominent titles were All Wishes Come True!, known in Chinese as 《八仙！》, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, both of which were identified among the leading performers of the summer period.
With the season running from 1 June to 31 August, the final ranking was still capable of shifting as new releases entered the picture, including Once Upon a Time in the Middle East, or 《欢迎来龙餐馆》, which was projected to make a late challenge for the top position.
Still, Kung Fu Soccer had already secured its place among the season's biggest talking points, and not simply because of its box-office performance.
For Stephen Chow, the film represents a return to a style audiences have been waiting to see from him again, while for Dilraba Dilmurat, it offers the chance to demonstrate a side of her acting that Chow says he recognised years before this project existed.
The most interesting part of Chow's comments may therefore be what they reveal about the casting itself. He was not simply looking for a famous actress who could carry a major role; he was looking for someone prepared to throw herself into the comedy without constantly worrying about maintaining an immaculate image.
After watching Dilraba for around 10 years, Chow apparently already knew she had that quality, and Kung Fu Soccer finally gave him the opportunity to put it to the test.
Whether audiences think Dilraba's comedy turn works as well as Chow believes is another question, but there is no shortage of curiosity around it.
Does Dilraba Dilmurat have the potential to become one of the film's biggest comedy surprises, and does Kung Fu Soccer live up to the legacy of Shaolin Soccer?