Wong Fu Productions – UCSD Alumni – Release Latest Short Film, “Strangers, again”

Wong Fu Productions, an Asian-American filmmaking group from UC San Diego, has just released their latest short film, Strangers, again onto Youtube.  Writer and Director Philip Wang says the 16-minute film is “a look at a ‘typical’ relationship through the rise and fall, exploring and explaining how two strangers can come together, learn everything about each others lives, and then fade away back to where they started.”

The digital short features prominent young members of the Asian-American online community like Cathy Nguyen (YouTube artist with almost 5 million views) and David Choi (YouTube musician with over 11 million views).  Having just been released last week, the short film has already received close to 1 million hits on YouTube.

Going viral instantaneously is no new sensation for the trio that make up WongFu Productions.  In addition to short films, the young producers have also recorded and posted music videos and vlogs, all of which have helped them become prominent filmmakers both in the film community and the online community.  Their works have been featured at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, San Diego Asian Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival.  Their YouTube channel currently has over 14 million Channel views and 72 million Total Upload views.

In a feature by CNN, newscaster Ted Rowlands reported that the young filmmakers were pioneers for Asian-Americans aspiring to enter the entertainment industry.   “We actually didn’t set out to be the ‘heroes’ of Asian Americans. It just happened by accident. But now that we’re given this huge responsibility, almost, I feel like it’s our duty to take it seriously,” replied member Ted Fu.

Despite their accrued success, the trio tries their best to keep things simple.  The WongFu productions motto off their website remains: “If at the end of the day there’s someone out there who has a better day because of us, then we’ve succeeded”.

Image by thms.nl via Flickr, Piazza del Popolo via Flickr and thms.nl on Flickr