Wong Fu Production’s “Agent of Secret Stuff” comedy film is a big hit on YouTube

Anything that San Diego-based Wong Fu Productions creates is big news in Asian American circles. But their 35-minute indie film, “Agents of Secret Stuff,” a spy comedy has garnered the attention of the mainstream tech press because it’s already been viewed over 2 million times since was posted on YouTube on Nov. 24.

Mashable.com, the online bible of the social media industry, posted about the movie’s success. Wong Fu has also posted an entertaining 8 1/2 minute “Behind the Scenes” video and a 4-minute Blooper reel. Wong Fu’s starting to feel like a grown-up movie studio!

But they’re still a trio of young Asian American friends from college days, Wesley Chan, Ted Fu, and Philip Wang, who decided to pool their talents in video production, hooked up with lots of AAPI talent (they’ve worked on Far East Movement’s music videos, for instance), started a t-shirt company called Nice Guy Design, and travel around to colleges speaking to Asian American student groups (they’ve spoken and showed their work at Denver University, for instance, even out here in the hinterlands).

“Agents of Secret Stuff,” a collaboration between Wong Fu and Japanese American comedian Ryan Higa (the first person to hot 2.8 million subscribers on YouTube) is a funny and silly but very entertaining spy spoof about Adan, an agent of Agents of Secret Stuff (A.S.S.) played by Higa, who has to go undercover as a high school student to protect a girl (played by the lovely Arden Cho) from A.S.S.’s archenemy, the Society Involving Not-so-good Stuff (S.I.N.S.). Taylor, the girl at first resists having a bodyguard, but then of course they fall in love. It’s a cliched plot and yes, it descends into goofiness here and there, but it’s cute and irresistibly likable throughout. It’s also the longest, studio-quality film to be posted on YouTube, and it doesn’t disappoint.

The trailer above is just a taste of the fun. Check out the whole film!

2nd installment of Greg Pak’s “Vision Machine” comic book available for free download

A panel from Greg Pak

For fans of sci-fi and comic books, the second installment of writer Greg Pak‘s “Vision Machine” comic book series is now available for FREE download at visionmachine.net and comixology.com. Part 1 is also available on the downloads page, with Part 3 coming in December.

Here’s the official skinny on the book:
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Artist Takashi Murakami’s in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade… is that weird?

Takashi Murakami

It was a surreal moment, when I looked up at the TV this morning and saw Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieria nattering on about Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, and how cute his artwork is. The camera switched to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade  (yeah, it was on — what’s it to ya?) and there was Murakami, bundled up in a fluffy costume that he must have created, designed to look like some indeterminate animal/plant hybrid species. He was bopping up and down and grinning like a mad-man, loving every moment of his nationwide exposure.

I did a double take, because Murakami’s pop art can be very cute, but he also makes art that is very sexual and fetishistic. He makes life-sized figures of manga-like characters in sexual poses. And, he’s created striking, powerful paintings and sculptures that depict the atomic bomb mushroom cloud — it’s a recurring motif in his work.
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Asian American group Far East Movement tops the charts, “Like a G6” is everywhere

This has been an exciting year for Asian American music fans. Taking off above a bubbling community of AAPI singer-songwriters and individual performers, we’ve seen Bruno Mars, who’s of Filipino and Puerto Rican descent (and born and raised in Hawai’i) hit the top of the charts with “Just the Way You Are,” and Far East Movement, the first-ever all Asian American group (Korean, Chinese, Filipino and Japanese), bust out of Los Angeles’ Koreatown and also top the charts with its catchy electro-hip hop dance single “Like a G6.”

The song was certified Double-Platinum this week by the Recording Industry Association of America, which means it’s sold and impressive two million copies. That’s a pretty cool accomplishment for a group of pals from K-town. Their big break was being included on the soundtrack of director Justin Lin’s “Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift,” and their music’s shown up on various TV shows. Earlier this week I even caught “Like a G6” blasting in the background during a nightclub scene of “CSI: Miami.”

The group’s third album, “Free Wired,” is still on its upward curve, and the second single, the ballad “Rocketeer,” is going strong, featuring Denver native Ryan Tedder as a guest vocalist.

For Colorado fans who may have miss FM when they played in Denver, the group will be playing at CU-Boulder in the spring.

(Cross-posted from my gilasakawa.posterous.com pop culture blog)

“Green Hornet” trailer shows Kato’s role as much more than just a butt-kicking sidekick & valet

First of all, I can now see that there’s some comedic logic to casting Seth Rogan as the Green Hornet (and his alter-ego Britt Reid), and that he may be able to pull off a superhero vibe after all.

Second, I can hardly wait to see the movie to enjoy Jay Chou as Kato, and the fact that he’s really the superhero of the story, building the “Black Beauty” limo and kicking serious butt with his martial arts skills. Oh yeah, he’s the valet/chauffeur, all right… but so much more.

It’ll be interesting to see if the movie explores Kato’s ethnicity.
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