UTA has hired Hong Kong screenwriter and director Tiger Ji to represent the company in all areas.
Ji first rose to prominence at the age of 19 with his award-winning 2020 short film “Wuhan Driver,” which was executive produced by Jonathan Sanger (“Vanilla Sky,” “Elephant Man”). The film is about a Chinese Uber driver in New York who struggles to make ends meet at the start of the pandemic. For the project, Ji won the Filmmaker of the Future Award at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
His next project, 2023’s “Death & Ramen,” stars Bobby Lee (“Borderlands,” “Pineapple Express”) and Matt Jones (“Breaking Bad”). The short film premiered at Palm Springs Shortfest, where it was nominated for Best Comedy. It follows a ramen chef who embarks on an unplanned nighttime odyssey with the Grim Reaper, sharing a bowl of noodles and discovering what it means to be human.
“Death & Ramen” was acquired by Canal+ for worldwide distribution and reached 1 million views on YouTube in just over a month.
Ji studied at the NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where he majored in philosophy and also studied Russian literature.
He studied under renowned filmmakers Ruben Ostlund (“Triangle of Sadness,” “The Square”) and Lucrecia Martel (“La Ciénaga”). Inspired by Hong Kong cinema, Ji’s films aim to fuse Eastern and Western sensibilities, mixing the absurd with the serious.
Ji lives in Los Angeles, where he is currently developing his first feature film, an adaptation of “Death & Ramen” with Fit Via Vi Film Productions (“Oh Canada,” “Reality”).
