Jacen Tan is back on our radar this year. The Singaporean director behind 2018 horror romp Zombiepura is now underway with Singapore/Canada co-production, Kungfuland, filming AUX Infinite Studios at Singapore according to Deadline’s Liz Shackleton on Thursday.
Set in Chinatown 1999, the film pays homage to the 1970s golden era of martial arts films, as well as nostalgically recreating the world of video stores and VHS tapes. The story follows a kungfu movie nerd who gets stuck in his favourite films and must fight to save his long-lost father, before the real world erases them both forever.
Kungfuland stars Idrissa Sanogo Bamba and Ellen Wong along with Dion Johnstone and Hugh Tran, with a cameo appearance by Hong Kong cinema Chiang (The New One-Armed Swordsman). Combining virtual production with Shaw-inspired sets, Tan is directing from a script by Andrew Ngin and Maninder Chana, with backing by Singapore’s Ajacent Media and Canada’s 100 Dragons under the Singapore-Canada official co-production treaty with support from Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA), Telefilm Canada and Ontario Creates, according to the report.
“I searched far and wide for a kungfu comedy and found it in Singapore in 2024 during the ATF x SAAVA IP Accelerator 2024,” said 100 Dragons’ Teresa M. Ho, who is producing the film with Kat Goh. “It’s with great excitement that 100 Dragons embarks on the first scripted feature-length Singapore-Canada Treaty co-production with like-minded partners, Ajacent Media.”
Tan said: “I grew up watching and rewatching old-school kungfu movies on VHS, dreaming of jumping into the screen. Kungfuland is a nostalgic mash-up inspired by Shaw Brothers martial arts films, powered by the latest Virtual Production technologies. Who doesn’t love drunken masters, rooftop qing-gong, long-browed villains, one-hit pressure points, and masked ninjas who politely attack one at a time?”
Read more at Deadline.
Lead image credit: Stephanie Lun for NYAFF