The cast of the Chinese fantasy film "Tiger Robbers" made an appearance at the press conference of the 3rd Hainan Island International Film Festival (HIIFF) on December 6. Producer and scriptwriter Fang Li, director Li Yu, and some of the leading actors attended the conference. After the press conference, Fang Li was interviewed by CGTN and shared his creative ideas and the interesting stories of the film.

In the film "Tiger Robbers," based on Japanese writer Kotaro Isaka's novel "Sunshine Robber," four robbers team up to pull off a "fun" heist involving a Manchurian tiger.

Although the film is adapted from a novel by Japanese writer Kotaro Isaka, the plot is set in a slightly different way, "Although 'Sunshine Robbers' is a novel by Kotaro Isaka, we only use the worldview of the characters in his novel and the humor of their actions," according to Fang Li, the producer and scriptwriter of the film.

And a big part of the reason the film crew put a tiger at the heart of the story is that they love tigers so much.

Fang likes director Ang Lee's "Life of PI" and the role of the tiger. The wild animals, which seem "fierce" to ordinary people, are very gentle and lovely in Fang Li's eyes. He also wanted to show the lovely and changeable side of the tiger more vividly in front of the audience, so he decided to make a film about the tiger.

To make the film, Fang went to several wildlife parks to select "real tigers" suitable for shaping the role. Finally, the team unanimously selected Wen Wen, a Manchurian tiger, to play "Na Na", the tiger in the film.

As a very important part of the film, Wen Wen, the tiger, won the love of the whole film crew. "Wen Wen is so beautiful. She is a girl whom we love very much. She is a particularly beautiful girl," said Fang.

The tiger will have wonderful performance in the film, showing both the state of the tiger living in nature and the cute side of this seemingly fierce wild animal.

"I just want to share with the audience that when the cats are not threatened, and you don't make them feel threatened by you, they are actually very cute and gentle," said Fang.

The film is directed by Li Yu, a female Chinese film director, and screenwriter, who has shot several films such as "Guanyin Mountain" and "Lost in Beijing". This year marks the 15th year of collaboration between Fang and Li. "Tiger Robbers" is their sixth collaboration, with Fang hoping to add warmth to a world that is healing its wounds, while Li hoping to greet 2021 with a ray of sunshine in the form of fairy tales.

"Tiger Robbers" is expected to be released on the Chinese mainland during the New Year holiday on December 31.

(Cover image made by Zhang Zhijie)