Over the past few years, American studios have finally listened to the prayers of their audiences and have blessed us with a litany of animated stories told with East Asian myths and symbols. Whether that’s because more Asian filmmakers are given opportunities, audiences are asking for more representation of their cultures, or the studios are trying to tap into a market that they’ve historically failed to make ground in, it’s not too clear. The resulting films haven’t either. Turning Red has been the best of these recent releases, tapping into Chinese aesthetics and ideas in a way that felt fresh and new, a much-needed respite from the onslaught of mediocre American animation coming out every year. Others, like Raya and the Last Dragon, Abominable, Wish Dragon, and The Monkey King, fail to give their East Asian symbols voices, likely because Asian filmmakers directed none of them (you’d think that would be the most obvious decision). These films use their mythical beasts as props and don’t do any justice to the cultures they are riffing on, just so they can adopt their gods and stories. It really is the most Hollywood thing to take something you do not understand just because it looks cool and plaster it as real.
The Tiger’s Apprentice was supposed to be different; I mean, look at that cast list: Michelle Yeoh, Sandra Oh, Henry Golding, Lucy Liu, Bowen Yang, and Leah Lewis, not to mention up-and-coming talents Greta Lee and Brandon Soo-Hoo. We can’t forget the Golden Globe host, loved by all, Jo Koy as the Rooster. These are the most established Asian stars in Hollywood, all joining up under the direction of Raman Hui, a Hong Kong filmmaker, to make a Chinese Zodiac movie, with each voicing a different animal. In every sense of the word, this should be a slam dunk, but it falls into the same trap these other films do: choosing to pander to an American understanding of Chinese culture instead, and so seems ingenuine and hollow, like the animation itself.
Tom (Soo-Hoo) is your average 15-year-old: he has a crush on a girl in his class, gets bullied because he lives in a strange house with his ‘witchy’ grandma (Tan Kheng Hua), and is part of a lineage of magical guardians who, with the help of 12 Zodiacs, protect the world from eternal darkness. No biggie. Tom does not know this until Loo (Yeoh), an ancient sorceress devout to the destruction of life, shows up at his grandma’s house and tries to steal the Phoenix necklace hanging around her neck, which holds a mystical beast that has the power to change evil into good. The boy is suddenly cast into a world he does not understand, but he must live up to his family’s legacy to become the next guardian. With the mentorship of Hu (Golding), his tiger godfather, he might have a shot at saving the world from imminent destruction.
Laurence Yep’s original book is Chinese in its bones, adopting ancient folklore and locating it in modern-day San Francisco. In a lot of ways, it plays out like a Percy Jackson-esque rundown of broad myths that cover the basics. This film largely ignores that, other than in its final moments, and instead uses the Chinese aesthetic as a backdrop to tell a generic story. The few arresting images that are here do not make the short 80-minute runtime worth it, nor does it make the waste of potential with this star-studded cast any easier to swallow. Suppose they do continue adapting Laurence’s trilogy. In that case, I hope they give the filmmakers more breathing room to tell stories from their childhoods, not something barely resembling the culture it came from. With Kung Fu Panda 4 coming out soon, though, it’s not looking too likely.
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