Director: Raman Hui
A skateboarding teenager finds out his grandmother's stories about guardian spirits were never just bedtime tales in The Tiger's Apprentice, an animated adventure that pulls Chinese zodiac mythology into a present-day fight over an ancient relic.
What is The Tiger's Apprentice about?
Tom Lee has spent his whole life assuming his grandmother's talk of magic was harmless nonsense, right up until the night she's attacked and he learns he comes from a long line of protectors called the Guardians. Thrown into a world he didn't know existed, Tom is taken under the wing of Hu, a towering tiger spirit with centuries of experience and very little patience for excuses, along with the rest of the twelve Zodiac animal warriors. Together they need to shape Tom into someone capable of standing against a force intent on twisting the Guardians' power for its own ends, and the clock is running out. The film moves between training, family secrets, and set-piece chases as Tom is pushed to accept a legacy he never asked for, discovering along the way that the myths he grew up hearing were a map to who he actually is.
Cast & crew
Raman Hui directs a cast led by Brandon Soo Hoo as Tom, with Henry Golding voicing Hu, alongside Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, Michelle Yeoh, Bowen Yang, Leah Lewis, and Tan Kheng Hua rounding out the Guardians and the wider ensemble.
Context & significance
Adapted from Laurence Yep's novel series, the film draws directly on Chinese zodiac folklore, reworking the twelve animal signs as a secret order rather than a calendar system. Hui, an animation veteran with a background at major studios, brings a blend of martial-arts choreography and family-adventure pacing to the material.
Where & how to watch
The Tiger's Apprentice streams with Persian dubbing on K-Time, and you can read everything on this page without an account — watching the film itself just needs a free K-Time login. K-Time's menus and navigation are built in Farsi, keeping the experience familiar for Persian-speaking families choosing something to watch together.