Asian Persuasion made its worldwide premier at the Soho International Film Festival in New York City on September 16. Luckily, I was already going to be in New York that week, when director Jhett Tolentino texted me an invite to the premier and afterparty! I had profiled Jhett in my Forbes column (read his fascinating career pivot story from accountant to Tony-award winning Broadway producer!), and he’s been kind enough to give me script feedback on Legacy Breed. Of course, I was excited to support Jhett on his directorial debut.
Being in love with food, NY and childhood dreams
Asian Persuasion is a romantic comedy about a recently divorced couple, where the ex-husband sets up his ex-wife to remarry, in an attempt to get out from under an onerous alimony decree. Will husband’s zany plan to love-coach the new man dating his ex-wife work? Or will the exes get back together? How does Kevin Kreider, the hottie from Bling Empire, figure into all of this?
I won’t reveal any spoilers here, but I can confirm this is a rom com through and through. There are multiple characters falling in and out of love — and even Prince Charming! Paolo Montalban, who plays the man being love-coached to date the ex-wife, played Prince Charming to Brandy in the reboot of Cinderella, also starring Whitney Houston.
That said, the real love story is with food, NY and childhood dreams. The ex-husband main character, played by Dante Basco, is an aspiring chef, currently running a hole-in-the-wall coffee shop. There are delicious shots of ube pancakes sprinkled throughout the film. There are also close-ups of street signs indicating Filipino parts of Queens, NY, as well as other NYC landmarks such as the Museum of the Moving Image or Chinese Tuxedo. Finally, both lead characters are creatives (the ex-wife is a fashion designer), and their childhood aspirations figure prominently in why they fell in and out of love.
A childhood movie theater gets fancy
It was fun returning to the East Village Theater, which is now renamed East Village by Angelika and renovated. The last time I went to this theater was in 2002 to see Far From Heaven, and the movie projector actually broke down right at the exact moment where the train is pulling away, and you wonder whether the leads will actually get together or separate (I won’t spoil this one either).
The new theater had no such projection issues. It had roomy, multi-tiered seating, a beautiful ceiling and ample space for the Q&A after the movie. The Q&A featured director Jhett Tolentino, screenwriter Mike Ang and all principal actors – Dante Basco, Paolo Montalban, Kevin Kreider (making his feature film debut as the best friend) and KC Concepcion as the ex-wife.
Next step: San Diego Filipino Film Festival
Unsure how broadly Asian Persuasion will get distributed. It won the Audience Favorite award at the Soho International Film Festival! That’s a promising sign that it could get picked up for distribution to movie theaters or by one of the major streaming platforms. At the very least, it’s been selected to close the San Diego Filipino Film Festival on October 8. Let’s support Fil-Am creatives, and get Asian Persuasion into more venues!
We are Scott and Caroline, 50-somethings who spent the first 20+ years of our adult lives in New York City, working traditional careers and raising 2 kids. We left full-time work in our mid-40’s for location-independent, part-time consulting projects and real estate investing, in order to create a more flexible and travel-centric lifestyle. 
Financial independence and early retirement is not something we originally focused on, but over time realized it was possible. Our free report, 
