Ah Huat (Chinese for “Fortune”), the lion dance lion is exhausted. As he should be, after decades of bringing prosperity to Malaysians celebrating Chinese New Year. For the past 40 years, the routine has been the same; training hard, then dancing from home to restaurant to shop, with customers all demanding for him to come to them! This year, with the help of Malaysian telecommunications company Maxis and a little technology, he’s going to do things a little differently.

Every Chinese New Year, it is a must for the Chinese community in Malaysia to invite “lions” to their homes, shops, restaurants, etc. to usher in luck and prosperity.

Inside each lion costume is a team of two dancers; one at the head and another at the tail, that spend years training to become in sync with each other and one with their costume. Every little tail twitch, eye blink and ear wiggle brings the lion to life, with the most skilled dancers even being able to create the lion’s emotions through movement and expressions – playful, friendly, mischievous, strong. Once the costume is on, they become the lion.

And while the people behind lion dance have been captured in film many times over, this is the first film that truly captures their art and skill; as they tell a tale from the POV of a lion.