The Kung Fu Kid comes to Digital on August 11 followed Blu-ray and DVD exclusively through Amazon on September 15.
Retitled accordingly from director Sun Haipeng’s 2024 sequel release to his inaugural I Am What I Am (2021), Well Go USA’s The Kung Fu Kid treks the latest stop for fledgling lion dancer, fighter and construction worker Ah-Juan who, along with his friends, are hustling their way in Shanghai’s urban day-to-day, struggling to make ends meet. A chance to help an instructor perform an exhibition to promote Master Zhang’s kung fu school leads to a confrontation with a trio of thugs trying to bogard and bully Zhang and manager Wang Xiaoyu out of the facility so that the rivaling Jinxin Combat Club can move in and expand.
Soon, a chance to train for a major tournament under disgraced Master Zhang finds Ah-Juan, eager to use his prize money to help take care of his family and ailing father, finally making his debut after months of training. What follows is a slew of backroom skullduggery at the hands of a devious fight promoter who also manages Zhangyang, the league’s biggest athlete and the champ of Jinxin. Falling prey to a campaign of lies and deceit that force him out of the semifinals, it’s up to Ah-Juan and his friends to redeem themselves once and for all when a major discovery about Zhangyang gives them a proper fighting chance.
Films like the Kung Fu Panda and NeZha franchises, and even Tekken: Blood Vengeance come to mind when I think of CG-animated martial arts films (I’ve only seen the first NeZha movie). Beyond that, I don’t typically think of the genre in this medium as I usually rely on either 2D animation or live-action treatments which are always more practical for me, so I’m usually impressed when a CG-animated martial arts flick performs really well for me. Thus when actioners like Sun’s The Kung Fu Kid come along to add to the trend, I naturally take interest. I had already seen clips of the film online and was surprised that Well Go USA caught hold of this title, mainly since so many of these specialty titles tend to peel off radar after while, so this made me happy.
Action sequences directed by Peng Zhang (Spider-Man: Brave New World) deliver with an array of style-focused fights and characters that amplify Ah-Juan’s malleability as a martial artist. The film hits even harder in the second half as Ah-Juan’s success results takes a turn for the worse when his reputation is damaged, setting the stakes even higher for the conclusion wherein our hero’s approach of attrition speaks volumes. Endurance and equity is a core theme here, founded in part by poetry and friendship in a story that aptly affirms itself for general audiences who love martial arts films suitable for fans of all ages.
I was especially compelled with how much this film emotionally charges its viewers. Ah-Juan is a true underdog in this story from the get-go, between trying to help keep a roof over his head with his friends and battling the Jinxin students who all act like thugs, to training for the tournament. I haven’t seen the first film so I don’t know how much proficiency Ah-Juan has as a martial artist either, but he alludes to his lion dancing as a factor after the second major action sequence, followed by Zhang’s own observation of Ah-Juan’s pugulism. It’s with this aspect in the movie that you can get behind Ah-Juan as a fighter growing stronger, which is certainly refreshing after seeing this facet of an underdog hero being sloppily treated in at least one other movie about a decade ago.
At a runtime of well over two hours and ten minutes minus end credits, The Kung Fu Kid delivers a fulsome animated martial arts tourno adventure, topped off with a hero worth rooting for. I’m curious to know where I’d stand with the film’s precursor after this, but if you’re as new as I am to the IP, The Kung Fu Kid isn’t a bad place to start.
