The last several years have been provenly ripe with the rollout of forefront Asian feature film talents, and I’ve proudly hyped them all up on this platform. As of Wednesday, I couldn’t be any prouder to add the name Jay Kwon to the list now with the first promo trailer online for upcoming martial arts comedy, Made In Chinatown, a project long shepherded by author and screenwriter Mark V. Wiley, and directed by martial arts legends, co-stars James Lew (The Perfect Weapon, Rush Hour) and Robert Samuels (Red Wolf, Yes Auntie!)
In the film, Kwon stars as Vinny, a disaffected Chinese New Yorker eyeing the girl of his dreams, while it just so happens that she only dates wiseguys. In an effort to win her over and with the help of a select few friends, he traverses the centuries-old illegal condiments trade in order to battle his way to the top of the Italian mob hierarchy and become a Made man. When Vinny finds himself cornered by law enforcement, he’ll be forced to either choose between continuing his personal quest, or winning one for the city’s war on crime.
I’ve been told by the director that Made in Chinatown is currently on par with festival plans that willl be announced in the coming weeks, so there’s no release date just yet.
I easily see this being a welcome feature at the Urban Action Showcase, as well as the Iron Dragon TV Action Fest, the Action On Film Festival and even possibly the New York Asian Film Festival, provided this trailer gets enough push. At any rate, Made In Chinatown has undergone quite the evolution in the past year and change, and otherwise serves quite the milestone for a talent like Jay Kwon who has become a recurring favorite on The Hit List on many occasions.
Made In Chinatown also stars Tony Darrow, Vincent Pastore, Raymond J. Barry and Shuya Chang with kung fu cinema legends, actors Lo Meng (Five Deadly Venoms, Ip Man 2 & 3) and Chiu Chi Ling (Winners & Sinners, Kung Fu Hustle), as well as Chris Caldovino, Paul Borghese, Shing Ka, Emmanuel Brown, Theresa Moriarty, Tony Ray Rossi, Fenton Li, Tak Wah Eng, Timothy Paul Chivalette, Karen Lee and many others!
Check out the trailer above as well as the poster and exclusive behind-the-scenes photos below!
