Bob Strauss May 4, 2021Updated: May 5, 2021, 5:34 pm
Alain Uy plays a divorced dad in the martial arts action comedy “The Paper Tigers.” Photo: Well Go USA
“The Paper Tigers” is a likable example of grit and determination, both onscreen and behind the scenes. Writer-director Tran Quoc Bao said he turned to Kickstarter to help finance his first feature film rather than give in to Hollywood’s suggestions that he cast white actors to play the lead roles he wrote as Asian Americans.
It took nearly a decade, but now Tran’s kung fu comedy/drama is out Friday, May 7, in the way he envisioned it. Any similarities to “Cobra Kai” are superficial.
The Paper Tigers answers the burning question, What if the Karate Kid got old and out of shape? Well, middle-aged, but definitely rusty as hell.
Three teens receive private kung-fu training from bona fide master Sifu Cheng (Roger Yuan) and become the kings of the local martial-arts scene. On the brink of attaining widespread recognition, something splinters best friends Danny (Alain Uy), Hing (Ron Yuan) and Jim (Mykel Shannon Jenkins), and they part ways for decades. When Cheng is killed, the now-past-it schlubs put their differences aside to solve the crime â only to find that spinning hook kicks ain t so easy when you re 45 and haven t stretched.
Old, new, major, minorâhereâs our city, and sometimes our state, on the screen.
Photo collage: Shutterstock by Everett Collection and Featureflash Photo Agency, Seattle Met composite.
A pan across lake union. Then we plunge into a tugboat s engine room, where we meet the married, middle-aged couple who own it. They ll spend the next hour and a half engaged in bouts of slapstick bickering. Thatâs how Seattle first hit cinema screens, in 1933, in
Tugboat Annie. It s not exactly a must-see, but since then, the city and the state around it have been portrayed in hundreds of movies (many shot in Vancouver, BC). Below are brief reviews of films that are significantly set here, divided alphabetically into three categories: Definitely Watch, Worth a Watch, and Skip. Weâll keep adding as we keep watching.
Tran clearly has an affection for affable martial arts movies. He grew up a first-generation Vietnamese American kid in Seattle, watching Hong Kong cinema alongside Steven Spielberg flicks. He started making short films with friends after seeing Jackie Chan movies. As it happened, Corey Yuenâthe famed director of, among many other things,
No Retreat, No Surrenderâwas a family friend. Tran showed him some of his early action shorts and Yuen offered some guidance.
In
The Paper Tigers, they signal the DIY spirit of the production itself.
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. The movie just needs to star some white guys. How about Bruce Willis?