ryuganji: film news from japan

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“Shaolin Soccer”’s Stephen Chow has joined forces with Fuji TV megaproducer Kameyama Chihiro to realise a Japanese pseudo-sequel entitled “Shorin Shojo” (something like “Shaolin Girl”), built around “Dororo” actress Shibasaki Ko and to be helmed by “Bayside Shakedown” and “Udon” director Motohiro Katsuyuki.

Shibasaki plays Rin, who returns to Japan after undergoing nine years of training in order to take over her grandfather’s Shaolin kung-fu dojo in China and ends up helping out a sport science university’s lacrosse team. Chow regulars Lam Tze Chung and Kai Man Tin are lined up to appear.

The project grew out of a meeting between Chow and Kameyama at Fuji TV’s annual Odaiba Boken-o event around four years ago. Chow wanted to make a sequel to “Shaolin Soccer” and shared ideas with Kameyama, resulting in an agreement to shoot a movie in Japan with a female protagonist.

Shibasaki just so happened to be starring in Fuji’s 2006 production “Star Reformers” (Kencho no Hoshi) and was offered the lead role, to which she eagerly responded that she had wanted try her hand at an authentic action film while still young, and subsequently began 12 months of intensive martial arts training. She’ll especially need it for a scene shot in one long take where she successively dispatches 100 baddies.

Shooting begins later this month and runs until mid-July, with an aim for completion in late February and a release later in 2008. (source: Sanspo, Sports Hochi)