Chihiro Kameyama, Japan's most successful film producer, is not a man to miss an opportunity. When Stephen Chow's comedy "Shaolin Soccer" became a smash in Japan in 2002, Kameyama had the idea of joining with Chow to make a Japanese spinoff. Now, six years later, we have "Shaolin Shojo (Shaolin Girl)," with Kameyama and Chow sharing production credits.
"Shaolin Shojo" has some of the ingredients of Chow's Hong Kong comedies, including veteran H.K. comics Chi Chung Lam and Kai Man Tin, as well as newcomer Kitty Zhang Yuqi, who stars in Chow's new film "CJ7," but its flavor is distinctly Japanese — or rather reminiscent of the hits Kameyama has produced for his employer, Fuji TV.
For fans who know those hits, including the films of the "Odoru Daisosasen (Bayside Shakedown)" cop-thriller franchise, much about "Shaolin Shojo" will be familiar, beginning with the sprightly, if derivative, direction of Katsuyuki Motohiro, who channeled Hollywood action films in making the "Odoru" films and has made a similarly intensive study of Hong Kong martial arts films for his first venture in the chop-socky genre.