Starring Dante Basco (But I’m a Cheerleader, among hundreds of other credits), Asian Persuasion is a charmingly low-key, low-budget romantic comedy that, as you may have guessed from the title, focuses on the historically underrepresented demographic of Asian-Americans, in this case specifically Filipino-Americans.
Also marking this out as unusual – perhaps even more so, given that Crazy Rich Asians was a recent, profitable example of catering to the Asian-American market – is that it’s a romcom focused on and presumably mostly aimed at men, and when do you ever see that outside of a Woody Allen film? And it’s not like he’s been getting many films made lately.
Dante Basco plays Mickey, who runs a fairly successful coffee shop in Queens (but spends a lot of time in Manhattan, which is lucky in terms of scenery) but is otherwise kind of a loser. One night while getting very drunk and stoned with a friend, he hits on the plan of getting his ex-wife Avery (KC Concepcion) hooked up and, eventually, married to another guy, meaning he won’t have to pay alimony any more. Told you he’s kind of a loser.
The wacky scheme soon ensnares Lee-Kwan (Paolo Montalban), a dull, earnest and very handsome stockbroker type. This is the main thread of the film, but it has a fairly large cast, many of whom have their own subplots intersecting with the main one. As is the norm for romantic comedies, you’ll see the plot beats coming several scenes in advance but, like action scenes, you don’t generally watch for original plots. Despite the film’s low-budget being in evidence during, frankly, most scenes, Asian Persuasion gets by on sheer good-naturedness, with a decently witty script ably delivered by a cast of sparklingly attractive actors. Like its main character, the film may not have much in the way of ambition but it’s charming and you can’t help but root for it.