‘Boogie’ Trailer: Eddie Huang Goes From ‘Fresh Off The Boat’ Author To Fresh-Faced Film Director
From restauranteur, to memoir author, to ABC sitcom executive producer,Eddie Huanghas worn a lot of hats. But now he moves fromFresh Off the Boatto fresh-faced filmmaker, making his directorial debut with the basketball dramaBoogie. Watch theBoogietrailer below.
Boogie Trailer
Eddie Huang is most known in pop culture circles for writing the memoir that the beloved ABC sitcomFresh Off the Boatis based on, even lending his voice to narrate the show, which he executive produced. But he famouslysplit with the seriesafter the network “tried to turn my memoir into a cornstarch sitcom and me into a mascot for America.” But there is no concern with smoothing over the rough edges of the Asian-American immigrant in his filmBoogie, with which Huang makes his feature directorial debut.
The film tells the story of Alfred “Boogie” Chin (played by Huang’s former assistantTaylor Takahashi), a Chinese-Taiwanese American high school basketball star who dreams of playing for the NBA amidst turmoil at home and among his classmates in Queens, New York. The film, which also stars Taylour Paige, Jorge Lindenborg Jr., Pamelyn Chee, Perry Yung, Mike Moh, and the late rapper Pop Smoke, is a classic inspirational sports drama, but anchored in the Asian immigrant experience. But rather than drawing from the many sports dramas before , Huang toldEntertainment Weeklythat the story ofBoogiewas inspired byGood Will Hunting, which was also the film that convinced him to go into filmmaking.
“That movie was the moment where I said, I would like to make a film that changes another kid’s life,” he told EW. “The way that they were able to humanize domestic violence and those relationships, it opened my eyes because I didn’t know you could talk about stuff like that in movies.”
I have to admit, I’m not overly fond of Eddie Huang, mostly due to hiscontroversiespertaining to criticisms of cultural appropriation. I likedFresh Off the Boatfor all the “sanitized” reasons he disliked (it’s an ABC sitcom, what do you expect!) but I admire him for taking his creative vision into his own hands and making the leap to filmmaking.
Here is the synopsis forBoogie:
From acclaimed writer, producer and restaurateur Eddie Huang comes his directorial debutBOOGIE, the coming-of-age story of Alfred “Boogie” Chin, a basketball phenom living in Queens, New York, who dreams of one day playing in the NBA. While his parents pressure him to focus on earning a scholarship to an elite college,Boogiemust find a way to navigate a new girlfriend, high school, on-court rivals and the burden of expectation.
