Eddie Huang Directs Basketball Drama – / Film

From restaurateur, to memoir writer, to executive producer of ABC sitcom, Eddie Huang wore a lot of hats. But now he goes from Fresh off the boat to the fresh-faced filmmaker, making his directorial debut with the basketball drama Boogie. Watch the Boogie trailer below.

Boogie Trailer

Eddie Huang is best known in pop culture circles for writing the memoir that beloved sitcom ABC Fresh off the boat is based on, even lending his voice to narrate the show, which he produced by directing. But he split from the show after the network “tried to turn my memories into a cornstarch sitcom and me into a mascot for America.” But there is nothing wrong with smoothing out the rough edges of the Asian-American immigrant in his film. Boogie, with which Huang made his directorial debut.

The film tells the story of Alfred “Boogie” Chin (played by Huang’s former assistant Taylor Takahashi), a Chinese-Taiwanese high school American basketball star who dreams of playing for the NBA amid the turmoil at home and among his classmates in Queens, New York. The film, which also stars Taylour Paige, Jorge Lindenborg Jr., Pamelyn Chee, Perry Yung, Mike Moh and the late rapper Pop Smoke, is an inspiring sports drama classic but rooted in the experience of Asian immigrants. But rather than draw inspiration from the many previous sports dramas, Huang told Entertainment Weekly that the story of Boogie was inspired by Goodwill hunting, which was also the film that convinced him to get into the cinema.

“That movie was the moment I said, I would love to make a movie that changes the life of another kid,” he told EW. “The way they were able to humanize domestic violence and those relationships opened my eyes because I didn’t know you could talk about things like that in the movies.

I have to admit that I don’t like Eddie Huang too much, especially because of his controversies over criticism of cultural appropriation. I loved Fresh off the boat for all the “sanitized” reasons he didn’t like (it’s an ABC sitcom, what do you expect!) but I admire him for taking his creative vision into his own hands and making the jump to the movies.

Here is the synopsis of Boogie:

Famous writer, producer and restaurateur Eddie Huang comes his directorial debut BOOGIE, the story of Alfred’s coming of age “BoogieChin, a basketball freak living in Queens, New York, who dreams of someday playing in the NBA. As his parents urge him to focus on getting a scholarship to an elite college, Boogie must find a way to lead a new girlfriend, high school, field rivals and the burden of waiting.

Boogie will open in theaters on March 5, 2021.

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