Recently, at a promotional exchange for the movie "The Kungfu Women's Football Team" in Zhuhai (China), a fan asked Stephen Chow whether the detail of the empty chair appearing in the after-credits scene of the movie was reserved for the late actor Ngo Manh Dat.
Stephen Chow answered briefly: "I completely agree!". This answer is seen as a confirmation of fans' explanation of the meaning of the final detail of the film.
Previously, the movie "The Kungfu Women's Football Team" starring Stephen Chow as screenwriter and director, as soon as it was released, created many topics of discussion on social networks.
Among them, many fans of Stephen Chow paid attention to a detail that is said to evoke Ngo Manh Dat - Stephen Chow's long-time co-star who passed away due to a serious illness in 2021.
Specifically, in the after-credits scene of "Women's Kungfu Team", the actors who previously appeared in "Shaolin Team" are Tran Quoc Khon (as Tu Su Huynh) and Lam Tu Thong (as Luc Su De) suddenly appeared in the audience seats with Chau Tinh Tri (as A Tinh).
Although the scene only takes backs, the audience immediately recognizes the characters of the "Shaolin Soccer Team" thanks to their yellow costumes and familiar figures and hairstyles.
In particular, the character believed to be Chau Tinh Tri (A Tinh) still wears an old pair of shoes, covered with patches given by A Mai in "Shaolin Soccer".
The moment that moved many people was when Lam Tu Thong stepped forward and sat next to Chau Tinh Tri, beside him intentionally leaving a seat empty.
Many viewers believe that the empty seat is a tribute to Ngo Manh Dat.
In 2021, Ngo Manh Dat - who was dubbed the veteran "green leaf" star (a term referring to veteran supporting actors as the perfect background for main actors) of Hong Kong (China) cinema - passed away after fighting liver cancer, at the age of 68.
In March of the same year, his funeral was held at the World Funeral Hall in Hong Kong (China). At that time, Stephen Chow was also present to bid farewell to his close co-star on his final journey.
Ngo Manh Dat and Chau Tinh Tri have collaborated in many classic works such as "God of Gamblers", "Shaolin Soccer", "Quan Xu Cuu Pham", "Vo Trang Nguyen To Khat Nhi", "The Tale of Journey to the West". The duo is considered by audiences and the media as one of the legendary matches of Chinese cinema.
According to many previously circulated information, during the process of preparing to make the movie "Absolute Kung Fu", the two had disagreements, and since then have no longer cooperated in later projects.
However, in his later years, Ngo Manh Dat repeatedly expressed his desire to act in movies with Stephen Chow again. This also made many people believe that the relationship between the two artists had been somewhat healed.
As of July 29, "The Kungfu Girl" has surpassed the revenue milestone of 2 billion RMB (about 7,700 billion VND) after 19 days of screening.
This is a remarkable achievement, as the film is not only the first work of the 2026 Chinese summer film season to surpass the 2 billion CNY mark, but also the 2nd film in 2026 to reach this milestone.
Thanks to the above achievement, Stephen Chow's film has surpassed "Love Letter to Grandma" with revenue of 1.999 billion RMB, thereby rising to 2nd place in the Chinese box office rankings in 2026, only behind "Phi trì nhân sinh 3" with 4.42 billion RMB.
At the same time, "The Kungfu Women's Football Team" officially joined the "film club with revenue of over 2 billion RMB" of Chinese cinema, becoming the 43rd work in history to reach this milestone.
