PLAYER AGENCY Review: Conquering Life Amid Virtual Conquest

Player Agency is now available exclusively at the official Patreon page from Art School Dropouts. The film’s webseries edit will make its weekly run on the official YouTube channel beginning in July.

I’ve been friends with independent filmmaker and actor Joey Min for some time now. He’s usually quick to second-guess his own work – all in the name of bearing an open-minded approach to his craft – which, with good measure, is only healthy. Gladly, that hasn’t stopped him and Art School Dropouts’ creative partner Stephanie Pham from being as ambitious as they could be at times, something to take in mind as we look at their latest completed effort, Player Agency.

This one is about as in-house as it gets, with much of the project made in collaboration with ASDO’s Discord and Rec Room Builder communities. The vision? A live-action comedy drama prominently entrenched in virtual reality per the narrative, which follows a jobless depressed slacker named Ken (Kage Yami) who embarks on a whimsical self-help adventure in a VR game, at the behest of a friend looking to get him out of his current rut.

Player Agency doesn’t encompass a lot of the pragmatic ingredients you would find in most films. Much of the voice acting sounds a little robotic at times, and indeed, the film’s virtual setting and floating LEGO-stylized characters with missing arms and legs, don’t fly as well as they would with a lot commercial moviegoers. It marks quite the longshot from the practical applications of what Min and his team specialize in, particularly with a resumé of shortfilms like “Broken,” “Takeout Takedown!,” and the “Lady” shorts, and even the vertical-shot “Gunslinger Mary”.

The same goes for Min’s webseries, “My Asian Auntie” which led to Min’s feature-length webserial follow-up, “Yes, Auntie!,” paying tribute to Hong Kong cinema in its own right. To that extent, Player Agency certainly breaks some rules in the process. Beyond that, it’s an otherwise advantageous leap into a new venue of indie storytelling, which is something worth admiring, in my view.

The story itself is a fun watch as we follow Ken’s virtual alterego in the company of two fellow warriors as they journey to find a lost grimore and save their land. As Ken and his friends battle their way through deadly assassins and creatures, the adventure ensues an epic battle with the manipulative and fanatical Lich King, hell-bent on keeping his throne. Little does Ken know, however, that regardless of win or lose, a shocking twist awaits with a decisive battle that is yet to come.

Audiences who watch Player Agency, whether you’ve been a subscriber to Min’s channel for years, or you’re new to his content, can certainly expect something to discuss with a project like this one. It’s as esoteric as it gets, a movie that’s really by the fans and for the fans, and free for all who are curious. Yami and Min share most of the live-action moments with a few cameos by cohorts Pham and martial arts influencer, actress Angela Jordan (@ajkick101), with both also sharing voice over screentime throughout the film (I should also add that Shaun Williams, better known as @Fu For Thought, is a contributor to this site, as well as a Patreon supporter for ASDO, and a voice-over co-star among this film’s cast).

Even more interesting is the way Min crafts the action – again, an acquired taste for the masses, but it’s a hell of a feat to accomplish. Min’s been wanting to do something like this for a while too; I recount of a LARP webseries he tried to crowdfund at one point and the campaign fell short of its goals at the time. That he gets to manifest some of that vision through a virtual medium here with Player Agency is audacious, at best.

To add, it also speaks to the ways in which someone feeling lost in life can purpose, something that Min mirrors quite effectively here in his messaging. Needless to say, Player Agency bodes as a pleasant little meta reminder that some people and things in life are worth taking chances on. Some will be glad they did. Some won’t bother, but, eh, to each their own.