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Thread: The Paper Tigers

  1. #1
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    The Paper Tigers

    ‘The Paper Tigers’: Alain Uy, Jae Suh Park and More Set For Kung Fu Action Comedy
    By Dino-Ray Ramos
    Associate Editor/Reporter
    @DinoRay


    Shutterstock
    EXCLUSIVE: Tran Quoc Bao’s The Paper Tigers has set its cast with Alain Uy (The Morning Show, The Passage, True Detective Season 2), Ron Yuan (Marco Polo, forthcoming live-action Mulan), and Mykel Shannon Jenkins (Undisputed 3: Redemption, The Gods) toplining the kung fu action comedy and Jae Suh Park (Friends from College) and Raymond Ma (Always Be My Maybe) stepping into supporting roles. The film is currently in production in Seattle.


    Ron Yuan and Mykel Shannon Jenkins

    Bao’s feature debut features Yuan, Uy, and Jenkins playing former Kung Fu prodigies who are now washed-up middle-aged men, one kick away from pulling their hamstrings. When their master is murdered, they must escape their dead-end jobs and overcome old grudges to avenge his death. The feature is an homage to Seattle’s martial arts scene from the 1970s and 1980s as well as the legendary Bruce Lee — a name that has been making headlines due to Quentin Tarantino’s divisive portrayal of him in his latest film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

    The film also features Matt Page (Sicario, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot), as well as Andy Le (Unlucky Stars, Luc Van Tien: Tuyet Dinh Kung Fu), Brian Le (Into the Badlands, Lucifer), La’Tevin Alexander (Portlandia, Grimm), Tee Dennard (East of the Mountains, Sadie), Joziah Lagonoy (SEAL Team, Fuller House), and Phillip Dang of 102 Productions.

    Bao is a mentee of the famed Hong Kong action director Corey Yuen. He was an editor for Trung So (Jackpot), which was Vietnam’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 88th Academy Awards.

    The Paper Tigers is produced by Michael Velasquez, Al’n Duong, Yuji Okumoto, and Daniel Gildark. The film was developed in part by the Frontiéres Platform at the Cannes Film Festival/Marchédu Film, an incubator for genre films around the world. XYZ Films (Nate Bolotin) will handle North American sales and AMP International will handle global sales.

    Uy is repped by GVA Talent Agency and Zero Gravity; Yuan by Greene & Associates Talent Agency; and Jenkins by Momentum Talent and Literary Agency. Park is repped by Gersh and LINK Entertainment and Ma is repped by Almond Talent Agency.
    This got me pondering Hollywood-made Kung Fu comedies. Has there been any really good ones? Specifically Hollywood-made, not Hong Kong-made.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  2. #2
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    Shot in Seattle

    This indie Kung Fu movie is shot entirely in the Seattle area
    The Paper Tigers, set for a 2020 release, is an indie Kung Fu action movie eight years in the making and many of the producers are Washington natives.
    Author: Ellen Meny, King 5 Evening
    Published: 6:00 PM PDT August 26, 2019
    Updated: 7:59 PM PDT August 26, 2019

    SEATTLE — The Paper Tigers is a Kung Fu action-comedy that's Seattle to its roots.

    Director Tran Quoc Bao, a Washington native, wanted to create a film that paid homage to Seattle's multiracial Kung Fu scene of the 1970s and 80s, while also creating a vehicle for Asian-American actors and creators to shine. The Paper Tigers is that vehicle- a film that took 8 years to come to fruition.

    The entire movie is filmed in the greater Seattle area, and features multiple Seattle-based producers.


    The Paper Tigers features a diverse cast of characters that pays homage to Seattle's multiracial martial arts scene in the 1970s and 80s.
    Beimo Films

    The story follows three friends- and former Kung Fu prodigies- who are now slightly washed-up middle-aged men. When their Kung Fu master is murdered, the three men must team up once again to avenge his death. Bao, the director, describes it as an "action dramedy".

    The film has already seen success, even while still in production. It ran a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2018 and was developed in part by the Frontieres Platform at the Cannes Film Festival.

    Bao hopes to have the movie out in 2020.
    There's a embedded news vid behind the linked article title.
    Gene Ching
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  3. #3
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    A tad late...

    ...Bao's talk was yesterday but better late than never.

    CULTURE
    Hollywood wanted ‘fewer Asians’ in a new kung fu film. This Seattle director stuck to his script
    With The Paper Tigers, Bao Tran aims to update the martial arts genre with nuanced characters.
    by Brangien Davis / September 16, 2019
    Photos by Matt M. McKnight


    Cast members (left to right) Brian Le, Andy Le and Phillip Dang rehearse a fight scene for ‘The Paper Tigers’ set at an empty pool in Shoreline, Aug. 22, 2019.

    When the Seattle producers of The Paper Tigers started pitching their contemporary kung fu comedy, they received a lot of interest from Hollywood studios that wanted to green-light the script. One even offered $4 million, four times the projected budget.

    There was just one caveat: fewer Asians.

    “We got a lot of pushback about our all-minority leading cast,” says Al’n Duong, a 36-year-old father and filmmaker based in Kent, who is a producer on the film. The story surrounds three former martial arts prodigies (two Asian American, one African American). Now middle-aged, the estranged pals must upend their “civilian” lives to avenge their possibly murdered kung fu master. Duong recalls the standard studio reaction: “They’d say, ‘We love it. Maybe we could do it with just one Asian guy.’ ”

    The Paper Tigers team was determined to make the film as originally envisioned. Long before the blockbuster success of Crazy Rich Asians (which grossed $238 million worldwide), they felt certain there was an audience for their kind of movie.


    (L-R) Second assistant camera Alex Farias, director of photography Shaun Mayor, and producer Al’n Duong on set in Shoreline. (Photo by Jesse Amorratanasuchad)

    “We knew it was marketable, so we ran with it,” Duong says.

    They took to Kickstarter and raised $124,000. That success, combined with a slick proof-of-concept trailer and a coveted slot at Cannes Film Festival’s networking program for movies in development, grabbed the attention of key investors. Thanks to several big donors (including a lifelong local who studied under Seattle transplant Bruce Lee), they were able to drum up the $1 million shooting budget — and have as many Asian characters as they pleased.

    The driving goal has remained the same since the team first started developing The Paper Tigers eight years ago: Make an independent film that embraces the thrill and humor of martial arts movies, while offering a nuanced, realistic portrayal of Asian men.

    The film is currently in post-production. But on a recent day in August, halfway through a tight 28-day shooting schedule, the cast and crew assembled at a Shoreline community center to film a pivotal fight scene at an empty indoor pool. By 10 a.m., fire trucks have already come and gone, responding to an alarm set off by a haze machine working vigorously to create a charged atmosphere in the institutional brick building.

    The Paper Tigers writer and director Bao Tran isn’t thrown by the interruption. The focused 39-year-old filmmaker has an endearing goofball streak (as seen in his pitch video). Asked how things are going, he says, “It’s all been very pleasant.” He notes how much Seattle’s Asian business community has pitched in to ensure the filming goes smoothly. “Chinatown-ID [International District] has been so supportive,” he says. “Jade Garden provided the crew with food. The Dynasty Room let us shoot there, and the Nisei Vets Hall let us use their space.” He also filmed a big dinner scene at China Harbor.

    Right now Tran is standing at the edge of the drained pool, watching the band of “young punks” — who may or may not be connected to the kung fu master’s death — practice their moves in the deep end.


    Director Bao Tran (at the edge of the pool) discusses a scene with cast and crew members of ‘The Paper Tigers’ during the recent film shoot in Shoreline, Aug. 22, 2019.

    Tran explains that this scene is crucial, because it represents the clash of generations. The three older men (actors Ron Yuan, Alain Uy and Mykel Shannon Jenkins) confront a trio of young toughs, who remind them of their younger selves and highlight some fundamental differences.

    “When martial artists don’t have a master, they can teach themselves through YouTube,” Tran says, explaining the backstory. “But there are no roots, no lineage.”

    In the pool, the three younger guys (brothers Brian and Andy Le of performance team Martial Club, and stuntman Phillip Dang) kick, strike and execute acrobatic aerial spins while fight choreographer Ken Quitugua telegraphs movement through hand motions.

    When the scene rolls, one of the older characters at the pool’s edge admonishes the youths: “The master always said, ‘Kung fu without honor is just fighting.’ ” It rings like a line from a classic martial arts movie.

    Tran says The Paper Tigers’ nod to genre tropes is the reason some Asian film producers expressed doubts about making the movie. He says they were worried about stereotypes, asking, “Why do you want to make a martial arts movie? It only sets us back!” While acknowledging this as a valid concern, Tran protests, “But I love martial arts movies.”

    Duong recognizes the hesitance. “I understand the pushback — kung fu movies are a sensitive topic. But for us, growing up, it was just what you did after school,” he says. “It’s very much a part of our history. We can’t just ignore it. We’re telling our story.”

    Tran and Duong were raised in very similar circumstances. Both are children of Vietnamese refugees who fled to the United States in the 1970s. Their parents landed in Olympia, where both men were born, and as boys drank in Bruce Lee and other Hong Kong fight movies. They emulated the martial artists’ precise, powerful moves, and recorded scenes on low-fi video.

    “Bao and I grew up in the same way,” Duong says, “making kung fu movies in the backyard.”
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
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  4. #4
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    Continued from previous post


    Cast members of ‘The Paper Tigers’ perform a scene filmed at China Harbor restaurant on Westlake Avenue, Aug. 21, 2019.

    But the two didn’t cross paths until both had moved to Seattle (Tran went to Seattle University, Duong to University of Washington). They met on the set of Bookie, a short film that Tran wrote, directed and edited, on which Duong served as grip. A tense film-noir affair that takes place in a 1960s Seattle R&B club, the short gained acclaim at a variety of independent film festivals in 2008. More importantly, it established a bond among the largely nonwhite cast and crew, and set an ambitious precedent.

    “That was a majority minority crew,” Duong says. “It felt so much like home. We all promised to make a feature film together some day.” He gestures at the cast and crew buzzing around the pool. “Ten years later, there are a lot of people here from Bookie.”

    The Paper Tigers production team also insisted on bringing young people of color onto the set as interns.

    “A lot of minorities don’t get reinforcement from their families to be an artist,” Duong says. “For Asian Americans, the acceptable jobs are lawyer, doctor, pharmacist. We have to fight through that to become artists.” His hope is that those who learn skills from working on this film will feel supported, and in turn support other minority filmmakers, so the community grows.

    Behind the Scenes with Bao Tran
    As part of Northwest Film Forum’s Local Sightings film festival, The Paper Tigers writer/director Bao Tran will give a talk about his experience making a kung fu movie all over Seattle. Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. ($5-$15)
    Beyond fighting ingrained stereotypes, the filmmakers are trying to present Asian American men as textured characters with positive and negative qualities, just like any human.

    “In American movies, Asian American men are either action figures or emasculated,” Duong says. Or both at once. In Quentin Tarantino’s new movie Once Upon a Time in America, Brad Pitt’s stuntman character beats up Bruce Lee during a break on a movie set. While Duong believes a new wave of movies (including Crazy Rich Asians and this year’s The Farewell) is working to add more depth to Asian roles, he says, “This is still an issue.”

    He and Tran both emphasize that the men in The Paper Tigers are characters with complexity — they are dealing with day-to-day kid logistics, going through divorce, facing middle-aged fears and filled with nostalgia for a faded youth. “We’re capturing how fragile masculinity can be,” Duong says. “We’re poking fun at it, too — with the young guys and the older ones. We’re trying to capture what it’s really like to be an Asian American man.”

    At the lip of the pool, the older characters trash-talk the younger set below, building up to a fight. But when the moment for action arrives, they are wary of climbing down the long ladder into the deep end. They walk to the shallow end instead, the boom mic following them like a fishing rod.

    “The humor is grounded in the realities of their age,” Tran says. “You have to pick your kid up from soccer, then go fight in a death match.”

    Tran stresses that his goal isn’t to “represent” all people of East Asian descent. “That’s such a loaded term,” he says. “We’re not trying to push a cause. We’re just coming from a perspective that’s genuine and honest, with nostalgia but without ****genizing.

    “It’s like people say: write what you know.”


    Director Bao Tran (at left) talks with director of photography Shaun Mayor on the set of ‘The Paper Tigers,’ during a dinner scene filmed at China Harbor in Seattle.


    About the Authors & Contributors

    Brangien Davis
    Brangien Davis is a reporter at Crosscut focused on arts and culture.

    Matt M. McKnight
    Matt M. McKnight is a staff photographer with Crosscut. Find him on Instagram @mattmillsphoto.
    Looking forward to this project.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  5. #5
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    THE PAPER TIGERS (2021) Official Trailer | Martial Arts Comedy

    Gene Ching
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  6. #6
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    Our newest web article

    Flipping the script on diversity. READ Yuji Okumoto and Quoc Bao Tran on THE PAPER TIGERS by Gene Ching

    Gene Ching
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  7. #7
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    Our latest sweepstakes. Enter to win!

    Enter to win The Paper Tigers on Blu-ray Disc!
    Contest ends 6/24/2021

    Gene Ching
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  8. #8
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    Our winners are announced

    Gene Ching
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  9. #9
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    Now on Netflix

    The Martial Arts Comedy That's Heating Up On Netflix's Top 10

    Well Go USA Entertainment
    BY*DEVON FORWARD/AUG. 11, 2021 11:03 AM EDT

    While Hollywood has an ugly history of presenting whitewashed, stereotypical stories of diverse cultures — especially when it comes to martial arts*–*recently, more and more stories created by and for people of color are getting made and appreciated as they should. Whether it's "Black Panther," "Parasite," or lesser-known films like "Burning" and "Sorry to Bother You," there are a lot of fantastic movies these days that are bringing diversity and accurate representation to the screen, while also simply being great stories. A new movie that was just released on Netflix is sure to be added to that list, and that's "The Paper Tigers."

    Never thought you wanted to see three out of shape middle-aged men fight kung-fu? While think again. In "The Paper Tigers," a 2021 film directed by Tran Quoc Bao, three men, well-known and feared as "The Three Tigers" in their youth for their skill in kung fu, must work together years later to hunt down the person responsible for their teacher's death. The new comedy film was released on Netflix on August 7, 2021, and it stars Alain Yu as Danny,*Ron Yuan as Hing, and*Mykel Shannon Jenkins as Jim, the titular Tigers who must get their act together quickly to help their late mentor. The movie wowed critics after originally premiering at the Fantasia International Film Festival in August 2020, earning a 98% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 58 reviews, and now it's finally getting the opportunity to shine in front of a wider audience.*

    As a film that almost didn't get made, "The Paper Tigers" is killing it on Netflix right now, and it's likely only the start.*


    Well Go USA Entertainment
    In "The Paper Tigers," longtime friends Danny, Hing, and Jim must return to their kung fu legacy to get justice for their old teacher, Sifu Cheung, played by Roger Yuan. A lot of cast members in the film have an extensive history working as actors, stunt coordinators, or choreographers in movies and television, with Yuan even appearing in "Shanghai Noon" with Jackie Chan. Speaking with The Daily Beast, Tran revealed that Hollywood offered to only make his film if they made the lead character white, to be played by someone like Bruce Willis. Thankfully, Tran didn't cave, going through the difficulty of finding other funding through avenues like Kickstarter in order to make the movie on his own terms, and clearly it paid off.

    "The Paper Tigers" is a truly hilarious story that focuses on the lifetime friendship of the three main characters. The movie has a lot of obvious references to older martial arts films while also feeling fresh and innovative, proving that there's still plenty of originality left in popular genres like this one, as long as the right creators are in charge. Jessica Kiang of Variety put it very well when she declared the "irresistibly good-humored" film — which happens to be Tran's directorial debut — to be "a diverting blend of Hong Kong and Hollywood that delivers, on a slender, Kickstarter-enhanced budget, a rousing roundhouse hug to both traditions." So if you are looking for a heartwarming comedy film to take your mind of other troubles, the underdog story of "The Paper Tigers" is the perfect pick.
    Might just have to watch this one again there.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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