A successful restauranteur, food personality, attorney, and author whose 2013 bestselling memoir Fresh Off the Boat was turned into a hit ABC sitcom, Eddie Huang can pretty much do whatever he wants. And right now he wants to find success as a filmmaker, and may have found the right mix of ingredients in Boogie.
The coming-of-age film marks the posthumous acting debut of rapper Pop Smoke, who was murdered in a home invasion last year. Others in the cast include Taylour Paige, Pamelyn Chee, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Alexa Mareka, Mike Moh, Domenick Lombardozzi, and Perry Yung.
As seen in the trailer, Taylor Takahashi stars as Alfred “Boogie” Chin, a Chinese-Taiwanese b-ball phenom out of Queen, NY who dreams of hitting it big in the NBA, but must juggle pressures from his family, friends, and romance. Huang not only directs but wrote the script, as well.
Speaking with EW, Huang compared his film to Good Will Hunting and cites it as a key influence…
“That movie was the moment where I said, I would like to make a film that changes another kid’s life. 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.”
Boogie is a film I was hoping would be at Sundance this month, but Focus Features will wait until March 5th to open it in theaters.
