This John Hughes Remake With a Twist Will Give You All the Feels
Hooray for Netflix and ‘80s movies, right?! We can’t get enough of Molly Ringwald, Matthew Broderick and the entire Brat Pack of the most righteous of decades. The undisputed cinema king of that era was John Hughes, whose teen flicks like The Breakfast Club and Weird Science shaped a generation. However, many have taken issue with the way Asian characters were portrayed in these movies (Long Duck Dong, anyone?), and we have to agree. Award-winning Korean-American director Benson Lee wants to change that with his new movie, Seoul Searching.
The message of his movie is one that is both ingenious and important: Asian actors and Asian characters deserve a little more respect. Sixteen years in the making, Seoul Searching hopes to shed light on the talent of Asian and Asian-American actors. The premise is simple: a classic, coming-of-age ‘80s plot (nerds, jocks, popular girls, etc), where six strangers meet at a summer camp and try to find themselves. The twist, however, is that all the characters are played by Asian actors — including the foreign ones.
For example, the German character? He’s played by a Korean actor. And the Southern, Forrest Gump character? Also played by a Korean actor. It takes stereotypes and completely turns them on their heads.
The movie gained a lot of buzz at Sundance, but now they need your help to raise funds on Indiegogo to get distribution. Benson Lee has decided that the top cities with the most donors will get a full-blown ‘80s prom with the cast. Sounds like our kind of party!
You can donate to the cause here — they’ve already raised $10,000 in one week. Do your part to bring diversity, comedy and indie flicks to the big screen!
What’s your favorite ‘80s movie? Tell us in the comments!
(Images via Seoul Searching, featured image via Clayton Chase/Getty)
