Locarno Winner Woo Ming Jin Wraps Telepathic Twins Film ‘The Fox King’

Award-winning Malaysian filmmaker Woo Ming Jin has wrapped principal photography on his latest film, “The Fox King,” the producers revealed at the Cannes Film Festival.

Set in a coastal Malaysian town in the early 2000s, “The Fox King” tells the story of Ali and Amir, inseparable fraternal twins with a telepathic bond. The brothers are forced to fend for themselves when their father abandons them after remarrying a younger bride. The arrival of a new teacher, Lara, tests their brotherly bond.

The film is headlined by Indonesian star Dian Sastrowardoyo (Netflix’s “Cigarette Girl”) alongside Idan Aedan (“Blood Flower”), Amerul Affendi (“I.D.”), Chew Kin Wah (“Rain Town”) and newcomer Hadi Putra.

“The Fox King” participated in the Tokyo gap financing market and the QCinema project market in 2023. The film is a Sunstrong Entertainment (Venice selection “Snow in Midsummer”) production in collaboration with fellow Malaysian companies Greenlight Pictures and Da Huang Pictures and Indonesia’s KawanKawan Media. The film is also supported by the Malaysian National Film Development Corporation (FINAS).

The production team includes Edmund Yeo and Woo from Greenlight Pictures, whose last film, “Stone Turtle,” won the FIPRESCI Prize at Locarno 2022. Chua Jin Xuan of Da Huang Pictures (Shanghai winner “Barbarian Invasion”) and Yulia Evina Bhara of KawanKawan Media (Venice winner “Autobiography”) serve as co-producers.

This is the second collaboration between Greenlight Pictures and KawanKawan Media after “Stone Turtle.” Jakarta-based KawanKawan Media is known for regional co-productions including Cannes winner “Tiger Stripes” and Locarno winners “Dreaming & Dying” and “Whether The Weather Is Fine.”

National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS) chair Kamil Othman said: “In a world going borderless, it is inevitable that creative works will not remain untouched by the possibilities it offers. It has always been the aspiration of FINAS to encourage co-productions as the means to create synergies that otherwise would not be possible. ‘The Fox King’ is one such project leading the way to set the stage to create stories that can resonate with audiences from all over the world.”

Woo added: “As a twin myself, I wanted to explore the little nuances of twins that run the spectrum of having an unequivocal bond, but also the competitiveness, pettiness and everything in between. I’m very grateful to be working with Dian Sastro. She is a titan of Indonesian cinema and someone I’ve admired for a long time. Teaming with Yulia again on this film is icing on the cake.”