General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Shaolin Girl (少林少女)

Shaolin Girl (少林少女, Shōrin Shōjo) is a 2008 Japanese sports action comedy film directed by Katsuyuki Motohiro, in which a young woman trained in Shaolin kung fu returns from China to rebuild her late grandfather's dojo and ends up playing for a university women's lacrosse team.¹^•² It was produced by Fuji Television, GAGA Communications, SDP, ROBOT, and The Klockworx, with ROBOT as the production company, and distributed by Toho.³ The film was released in Japan on April 26, 2008, runs 107 minutes, and was shot in color on 35 mm.¹

Key fact	Detail
Original title	少林少女 (Shōrin Shōjo)²
Release	April 26, 2008, Japan; distributed by Toho; 107 minutes¹^•⁴
Director / executive producers	Katsuyuki Motohiro; Stephen Chow and Chihiro Kameyama²
Lead role	Ko Shibasaki as Rin Sakurazawa, a Shaolin-trained martial artist¹
Premise	After 3,000 days of training in China, Rin returns to find her grandfather's dojo in ruins and joins a university lacrosse team²
Genre	Action/adventure, comedy, drama¹
Production	A Robot production for Fuji TV, GAGA, SDP, ROBOT, and Klockworx³

Spoilers

Plot

Rin (桜沢凛), played by Ko Shibasaki, completes 3,000 days of training at a Shaolin martial arts school in China and returns to Japan hoping to spread Shaolin kung fu.²^•⁵ She finds her late grandfather's dojo closed and in ruins, with the students scattered and her former seniors having abandoned the discipline.² Her teacher, Iwai Kenji (played by Yosuke Eguchi), has given up the martial art and now runs a Chinese restaurant on the edge of town.⁵

Through a chance connection, Rin becomes a helper on the women's lacrosse team of a university whose president, Ohba Yuichiro (Toru Nakamura), she encounters; with the assistance of a general-affairs office worker, Tamura Ryuji (Takashi Okamura), she builds teamwork with her new teammates and begins rebuilding the dojo.³ Her physical ability brings the team a string of victories, and the teammates in turn help her reestablish the school.² A dark incident from a past Rin knew nothing about then draws her into a showdown with a powerful adversary.² The Apple TV synopsis adds that her teachers in China feared the unknown power of ki hidden in her body and worried she might fall to the dark side.⁵

Production

Origins. After Stephen Chow's comedy Shaolin Soccer became a hit in Japan in 2002, producer Chihiro Kameyama, described by The Japan Times as Japan's most successful film producer, proposed joining with Chow on a Japanese spinoff; the film arrived six years later with the two sharing production credits.⁶ In an interview, Motohiro said he met Chow during a Shaolin Soccer promotion visit to Japan, doubted a cross-border collaboration was feasible given the language barrier, and credited Kameyama with putting the project together before Ko Shibasaki joined.⁷

Action approach. Motohiro stated that, unlike previous films that brought in action choreographers from Hong Kong, this production planned to build all of its action, including wire work, from scratch with a Japanese team.⁷ Separate action directors were assigned to the lacrosse sequences, the five-storied pagoda, and the Chinese restaurant scenes.⁷ Shibasaki underwent roughly a year of action training for the role.³^•⁸ Discussing the fight style with Shibasaki, Motohiro said they looked for a way of fighting that felt warm and suited to a woman, and Shibasaki suggested "motherliness" as the guiding quality.⁷

Crew and locations. The screenplay is by Masashi Sogo and Rika Sogo, the music by Yugo Kanno, the cinematography by Akira Sako, and the production design by Naoki Soma; the theme song is "Giri Giri HERO" by mihimaru GT.²^•³ The city of Izunokuni in Shizuoka Prefecture reports that the film shot location scenes there in the spring of 2007.⁹

Cast

Ko Shibasaki leads as Rin Sakurazawa. The supporting cast pairs Japanese actors with two performers from Chow's Hong Kong films: Toru Nakamura as university president Ohba Yuichiro, Takashi Okamura as Tamura Ryuji, Yosuke Eguchi as Iwai Kenji, Kitty Zhang as Ming Ming (劉珉珉), Tin Kai Man as Tin, and Lam Tze Chung as Lam.¹^•⁵ Tin Kai Man and Lam Tze Chung had appeared in Shaolin Soccer, and Zhang starred in Chow's CJ7.²^•⁶ At the Japan premiere press conference in 2008, Chow named a scene featuring Okamura and Shibasaki's fighting as his favorite in the film.¹⁰

Reception

Critical response. A review on eiga.com by Hibiki Kurei praised Shibasaki's kung fu action and the comic interplay between Okamura and the Shaolin Soccer duo, but judged that the finished film captured only a tenth of that energy, and argued that the "lacrosse version of Shaolin Soccer" concept audiences expected was treated as secondary in favor of Rin's serious inner world, leaving the film caught between styles.¹¹ Mark Schilling, film critic for The Japan Times, wrote that the film has some ingredients of Chow's Hong Kong comedies but its flavor is distinctly Japanese, reminiscent of the Fuji TV hits Kameyama produced, and described Motohiro's direction as sprightly if derivative.⁶ Reviews collected on the South China Morning Post's DVD notice called the film, which combines plot elements of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, surprisingly entertaining despite its silly premise.¹²

Audience scores. On Filmarks, the film holds a 2.4 out of 5 average from 4,280 user reviews, with 45 percent of ratings between 2.1 and 3.0 and 37 percent between 1.0 and 2.0.¹³ JustWatch lists an IMDb rating of 4.4 from 748 votes.¹⁴ The film carries a G rating in Japan and was classified General (suitable for all audiences) in Quebec on March 2, 2009.¹⁴^•¹⁵

Related works and availability

A low-budget parody, Shaolin Old Woman (少林老女), was released in Japan on May 31, 2008, about a month after Shaolin Girl, with variety performer Chiyoko Asami as an aging martial artist who loses her Shaolin school in a duel.¹⁶ The Izunokuni city publication describes Shaolin Girl as a sequel-like film to Shaolin Soccer.⁹ As of recent listings, the film streams on U-NEXT in Japan and is available for rental on Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, and FOD.¹⁴

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Martial arts films › Released 1986 to 2026

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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