“A fun and silly blend of ‘90s educational TV specials and tokusatsu superhero shows.”
SECONDARY EDUCATION
Short Film | 11minutes
Director, Co-Writer/Producer, Editor
Three high school students discover that their Chemistry teacher has been living a secret double life as a crime-fighting Power Ranger during after school detention, and unwittingly become embroiled in a showdown with an escaped mutant lobster.
Don't have 11 minutes? You can check out a trailer for the film here.
I had been a longtime fan of actor and martial arts performer, and Eric Lim's from our days in the martial arts filmmaking community, and, after a chance meeting we kept in close contact and began talking about making a film together. SECONDARY EDUCATION is a film that seeks to combine several of our greatest influences: the Japanese monsters vs superheroes Tokusatsu genre, the self contained and ensemble cast driven setups of movies like The Breakfast Club, and the educational entertainment angle of shows from the 90s like The Magic School Bus.
Eric travelled from LA to participate in the film, and ultimately, the production became a collaboration between our New York and LA crews. We shot at my old high school in Voorhees, New Jersey, with a crew made up of my classmates from NYU and a couple of my old high school friends. The rest of our actors were casted in New York. Collaborators from Eric's recent productions in LA made key contributions to our create and effects fabrication, visual effects, sound design, and artwork.
Secondary Education was released online through the Asian American Youtube network of Justin Lin (the director of installments 3-7 of The Fast and the Furious franchise), YOMYOMF. Following release, we've received coverage from a number of online publications for nerd culture, Asians in the media, martial arts, and Japanese Tokusatsu:
We've also played at a handful of film festivals across the world:
San Diego Comic Con International
Independent Film Festival 2014
Asians on Film Festival Fall 2013
Winner: Best Supporting Actress
Honorable Mention: Short Comedy
NYU First Run Film Festival 2014
Faculty Commendation for
Best Original Score
Los Angeles Fear and Fantasy
Film Festival 2014
Enmaze North American Chinese
Directors Short Film Collection 2014
Boom! Xpress 2014
Urban Action Showcase 2014
Nominee: Best Fight Scene
Action on Film International Film
Festival 2014
Eric and I on set at my old high school
during the Secondary Education shoot.
Our panel at SD Comic Con 2014.