Kung Fu from Taiwanese hitmaker Giddens Ko has been scheduled to open for the major Lunar New Year holiday in February 2026.
The film has been 10 years in the making and is billed as the biggest Taiwanese production in a decade, with a budget of nearly $9.1m (NT$300m). The action fantasy adventure is based on a novel by Ko about two high-school losers who, along with a homeless old man with unparalleled martial-arts skills, fight to restore justice to their city and unravel a 500-year-old grudge.
Compared to the original novel, which was published online in 2001, Ko said: “The film version has innovated a lot on kung fu and its origins and pays homage to many classic martial arts films.”
The film reunites the filmmaker with stars Kai Ko and Gingle Wang, both from 2021’s Till We Meet Again. Leon Dai, Berant Zhu and Liu Kuan-ting join the cast.
The film is backed by Taiwan-based Machi Xcelsior Studios, which is launching sales at Filmart this week and will distribute the feature around Lunar New Year, which begins on February 17 in 2026.
Machi Xcelsior Studios previously collaborated with director Ko on blockbusters Till We Meet Again and 2023’s Miss Shampoo. Executive producer is Lu Wei-chun. It is also one of the first film projects to secure the National Development Fund Investment from Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA).
To bring the many fight sequences from the book to screen, Korean stunt director Chang Jae-wook and his action team from Triple A are responsible for the action choreography. Golden Horse-winning WWWind Studio from Taiwan handles the visual effects.
Ko is both a successful writer, with more than 80 published novels, and a hit filmmaker whose credits also include 2011’s pan-Asian hit You Are The Apple Of My Eye.
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