What happens when you put the guy who voiced Zuko in Avatar: Last Airbender (Dante Basco), the guy who played Kim Jong-un in The Interview (Randall Park), and a bunch of other Asian American actors (Al Leong, Tamlyn Tomita, Yuji Okumoto) in the same movie? Well, anything could happen really, because these are all talented and accomplished actors. But, in this particular instance, you get Awsome Asian Bad Guys, an “irreverent homage to the nameless, expendable, yet imposing villains of ’80s & ’90s action flicks.”
The film began life as a simple two and a half minute YouTube video made by Patrick Epino and Stephen Dypiangco – known collectively as National Film Society. In the video, Epino and Dypiangco talk about their love of villainous film characters from the ’80s and ’90s played by Asian actors (i.e. Lo Pan from Big Trouble in Little China, or Chong Li from Bloodsport) and their dream of one day making a movie with some of them.
And now their dream has come true. After a fruitful Kickstarter campaign (yep, we’ve got another crowdfunding success story for you), and the snagging of the aforementioned actors (plus others), Awesome Asian Bad Guys is got the feature film treatment. It played at various film festivals (including LA Asian Pacific, NY Asian American International, and FAAIM), and is coming to VOD on June 23, 2015.
Let National Film Society themselves explain how everything came together below:
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