To form a team, the duo tracks down Fung’s five former Shaolin brothers. They have all fallen on hard times, abandoning their martial arts roots for depressing modern jobs:
At first, they refuse to play. However, after a brutal beating by a rival team leaves them bloody and humiliated, their pride awakens. They remember their training. They step onto the field, and the "Shaolin Soccer Team" is born. Using their supernatural abilities—like catching a ball with the stomach (Iron Shirt) or jumping twenty feet in the air (Light Weight)—they begin annihilating their opponents.
Shaolin Soccer is notable for its exaggerated visual effects that amplify the martial-arts moves into comic-superhuman feats—fire-powered kicks, rocket-powered headers, and other physics-defying moments. The film blends practical stunts with CGI (for its time) to create an energetic, cartoonish aesthetic.
During his training, the young monk meets Mui, a shy, acne-scarred tai chi master who works at a steamed bun shop. She uses her "soft" martial arts to make mantou (buns) incredibly delicious. Fung befriends her, but he initially rejects her romantic advances because he is focused solely on soccer. This breaks her heart, and she disappears, promising to support him from the shadows.