Still: Kung Fu Lion - Froukje Tan

The critically acclaimed Kung Fu Lion* by Froukje Tan, which has already been selected for a series of prestigious festivals that include the New York Children's Film Festival, Cinekid and IFFR, is now bound for the Beijing International Film Festival ahead of its Chinese release.

In the film, the nose of 14-year-old Jimmy is seriously put out of joint when the highly talented teenager Li Jié joins the Kung Fu school. When the new dance team is being chosen by the shifu (the Kung Fu teacher) Jimmy is convinced that he will be at the front of the lion, but the place is given to his new rival. Jimmy is determined to reclaim his place, but in order to do that, he must first overcome his own jealousy, and also begin to understand the complexities in the life of Li Jié.

The film has particularly personal resonance for director Tan, who has been a Kung Fu devotee and participant since the 1990s. In her school in Rotterdam she encountered kids from all backgrounds who continually benefited from Kung Fu training. It was as good for their mental development as it was for their physical health and motor skills, she noticed.

She also marvelled at the complexities of the lion dance in which the animal displayed a panoply of emotions courtesy of the dancers’ skills. Little by little she also noticed how being at the back of the lion was potentially a more responsible position, as it required both leadership and strength to perform the many lifts.

When the director discussed her idea with Flinck Film’s Sabine Veenendaal, the producer was immediately convinced of the project’s qualities and authenticity, given director Tan’s half-Chinese heritage.

When Veenendaal was invited to pitch the project in China (in 2019) she met co-producer Haoyue Zhang of Chinese Children’s Films. At a post-pitch reception at the Beijing Dutch Embassy, the project was the talk of the town. Two years later it became the first live action film to be agreed under a co-production treaty signed by Doreen Boonekamp, the then Director of The Netherlands Film Fund, and her Chinese counterpart.

Director Tan realised quickly within pre-production that it was more effective to cast Kung Fu kids and rely on their acting skills, rather than train up existing actors in the art of Kung Fu. “They really could listen and were able to learn to act,” she says, underlining how the masteries and skills learned under a shifu were transferable to another discipline such as acting. This was how she came across Tyrell Williams, a Dutch karate champion, who plays Jimmy and the skilled Haye Lee (Li Jié), whose shifu Tan knew well.

One difficulty the production team had to overcome was the arrival of two lead actors from China during Covid. Both of them are popular, especially Lau Kar Yung who plays the shifu. He has an enormous fan base in China, having starred alongside the likes of Jackie Chan in the 1990s. The well-known Simon Yu plays Li Jié’s father. The problem was that the world was then in pandemic-induced turmoil, with emergency policies being determined on the hoof, and there was no knowing if the actors would have to go into quarantine or not. In the end, all worked out ok. “They arrived in the Netherlands and they stayed for at least three months,” Veenendaal says of the actors’ successful and fruitful stay.

The film had further strong input from Chinese professionals in terms of the beautiful animated opening sequence, which sets the initial mythical tone, as well as the evocative score that plays throughout. This was provided by the celebrated Chinese composer Roc Chen together with the US musical scribe Joshua C. Love. 

“I was there in the middle during Covid time in Europe, and we were having all these sessions back and forth on how to make the music,” says Tan of a very productive time, despite the restrictions on travel.

“And as I was doing that I thought, well actually this is the way we should work in making beautiful things together, instead of all the problems now in the world. We should learn how to co-operate with each other, because I think that's the answer to everything.”

Sales on the film are handled by the highly experienced Xiaojuan Zhou of Attraction Distribution who first cut her teeth on the Dutch children’s classic Miss Minoes (starring Carice van Houten) back in 2001. “The good thing is that she [Xiaojuan Zhou] is Chinese as well. So she became one of our team of four women, together with Haoyue Zhang of Chinese Children’s Films, Froukje and me,” says producer Veenendaal.

When the film premiered at the New York Children's Film Festival in March 2024, it received significant thumbs up from many of the mothers in the audience who appreciated the film’s focus particularly on adolescent boys. “One said, ‘thank you, you're doing this for our boys because they really need it in these times,’” says Tan. “Because these days the focus is a lot on diversity and on girls, which is of course good. But it's still important to tell stories about boys and their fathers.”

Find more information on Beijing International Film Festival here.

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*Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund