Phil Wang says Asian Americans are losing momentum in Hollywood as he launches Sung, an independent film aimed at reshaping Asian American filmmaking.
Wong Fu Productions is returning to feature filmmaking with a pointed message about Asian American representation in Hollywood.
In a post on Instagram video, Phillip Wang says, “Hollywood treated Asian Americans as a fad the last few years and now they’re giving up on us,” adding that he has been “pushing our community for more than two decades” and is “not going anywhere.”
Wang says his new project, Sung, will mark the start of a broader push to rethink how Asian American independent films are made. “For the first time in over 10 years, I’m working on a new feature film and it’s gonna lay the foundation for a whole new approach when it comes to independent Asian American filmmaking,” he says.
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He argues that momentum has slipped since the success of Crazy Rich Asians. “Asian Americans are actually falling behind in Hollywood and have lost much of the momentum that we gained after the groundbreaking wave Crazy Rich Asians created in 2018,” he says. “This isn’t hyperbole. These are just facts and it’s time someone stood up and stood firm for our community.”
A lower-budget model
A major part of Wang’s pitch is financial. He says the film will be made for $500,000, a figure he presents as a deliberate alternative to the high-budget studio system. “While everyone is seeking millions of dollars for budgets that are unrealistic to recoup, I’m going to be making this first film for $500,000,” he says.
He adds, “The difference is, everyone is chasing big budgets and traditional studio deals and I just want to create movies that are made by us, centered on us for all to enjoy and that actually make their money back. It’s really that simple.”
Wang also points to Wong Fu Productions’ earlier crowdfunding success as proof of concept. He recalls that in 2014, the company “crowdfunded over $300,000” for its first feature, which toured internationally, landed on Netflix and, as he puts it, “made a profit.”
What “Sung” is about
Wang describes Sung as a romantic dramedy about a singer from Los Angeles who was kicked out of a K-pop training program in Korea and returns home “jaded and lost.” The story shifts when he meets a talented girl at a karaoke bar, with the two characters’ ambitions and pasts colliding. “It’s a romantic dramedy and of course there’s going to be some amazing songs in it,” he says.
He says the film has been in development for years, first soft-pitched in 2018 and later developed and written in 2020, before he decided to make it independently after “three years of it bouncing around the industry.”
Open casting and next steps
Wang says the production is planning to shoot later this year and is now opening casting to the public. “I wanted to reach out to our community first to see who wants to be involved in this film,” he says.
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He also invites people who are not actors to contribute in other ways, including “locations, music, sponsorships, or even investment.” He frames the project as the beginning of something bigger, saying, “This is just the first of what will hopefully be more films as I try to build our own Asian American A24/Tyler Perry Studios.”
Why it matters
Beyond the film itself, Wang ties the project to a larger mission. “Everything I’ve done at Wong Fu over the past 20 years has led me to this next chapter,” he says. “There’s still so much work to be done to achieve real meaningful and lasting Asian American representation.”
That is the core of his message: not just a new movie, but a new model. Wang’s pitch is part comeback story, part challenge to Hollywood, and part call to action for the community he says he has spent decades serving.
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