LAND OF NEW MOVIES

Bayside Shakedown director Motohiro Katsuyuki and Hong Kong comedy king Stephen Chow join forces for the Shaolin Soccer spin-off Shaolin Girl. Though Stephen Chow himself only clocks in as executive producer, he's lent his usual cast members to the film including Lam Chi Chung and Tin Kai Man from Shaolin Soccer and Kitty Zhang from CJ7. To seal the friendly crossover of Chinese and Japanese cinema, there's also Eguchi Yosuke who recently appeared in Silk, Okamura Takashi from No Problem 2, and Nakamura Toru from Gen-X Cops in deliciously evil mode. Of course, pride of place goes to popular actress Shibasaki Kou (Dororo) who stretches her legs and hams it up with utmost sincerity. Add in the colorful comedic support, galore of straight-faced ridiculousness, and blowout finale, and this over-the-top Japanese take on Hong Kong action comedy deserves a genre of its own.

After completing her training at Shaolin Temple, kung fu disciple Rin (Shibasaki Kou) returns to her quiet Japanese hometown hoping to spread Shaolin kung fu to the masses. But it turns out her former master Iwai (Eguchi Yosuke) has long closed the dojo and is now running a Chinese noodle dig instead. Waitress Minmin (Kitty Zhang) convinces Rin to join her university's lacrosse team instead where she can apply her kung fu to sports. Rin, however, isn't very good at lacrosse or at controlling her own powers, a weakness that could spell disaster if exploited by the wrong people. Recognizing her great power, the phenomenally (and inexplicably) evil university president (Nakamaru Toru) launches a nefarious plan to bring Rin to the dark side. ~yesasia~