It’s an eggroll. But did you know that in the right hands, it can be a deadly weapon? In fact, in the right hands, that conceit can propel an entire action comedy, threatening to explode into an entire franchise. After making a (hot oil) splash at WonderCon last weekend in Anaheim, let’s face it: Lumpia with a Vengeance already has become a franchise. It’s two films and counting, along with a small shared universe of comics.
Co-writer/director Patricio Ginelsa makes sure those comics bleed over into the film itself. That gives it both a unique, fun look and a template to seamlessly throw in necessary exposition without slowing anything down. Whether it’s narration, translation, or quick references to the first movie, Lumpia (shot in High 8 many years ago), we’re watching a comic book come to life. The film opens by flipping througha comic book and zooming in on a panel. Maybe that doesn’t work for you, but it worked for me. Mostly because Ginelsa and his collaborators have such deep passion for this project that infuses every minute. It may be cheesy at times, but it’s sincere cheese.
That also works in its favor. Underneath the comic book trappings, the filmmakers do more than spotlight their Filipino-American heritage. The importance of family threads throughout, and on a darker side, the tension between assimilated 2nd generation and those considered “fresh off the boat.” Still, they deep fry these issues in a coating of drug lords peddling addictive hallucinogenic lumpia, which only the silent avenger Kuya (MMA champion Mark Muñoz) can stop.
Well, not only Kuya, which means “big brother.” For he has to build a family to help him. In addition to tech whiz George (Earl Baylon), who drives his tricked out food truck, he recruits Rachel (April Absynth), the high school-aged daughter of his own childhood friend “Mon Mon” (Francis Custodio). She’s learning to be as deadly accurate as a lumpia thrower, but mostly she wants to make sure that her parents have their dream wedding at last.
They even have a super-villain of sorts, the two-toned Jemini (Katrina Jayne Dimaranan), slick with evil echoing at every stiletto-heeled step. She wants to expand beyond drug-laced lumpia into taquitos in partnership with Reyes (Danny Trejo). The plot is broad, really broad, but it’s tempered with laughs and, led by Muñoz, top-notch action.
In addition to being crowd-funded, Lumpia with a Vengeance is the product of a community. Many of the actors reprise roles they had as teen-agers in the original film, allowing for those flashbacks to be neatly inserted. Many of those involved wore multiple hats, and that helps bring verisimilitude to the production. They may call their comic book world Fog Town, but it’s Daly City in the San Francisco Bay Area. This comic book movie has a sense of place.
Let’s get to those comics — through their own imprint “Kid Heroes Comics,” there’s a trilogy that serves as both a bridge to the movie and a chance to move things forward into the hoped for next installment, The Legendary Lumpia Squad. These quick hit stories are done in various styles and help to build the fictional world. The best book from the imprint so far, however, is a stand-alone Jemini, focusing on their villain and, true to her name, is double-sided. The two stories breathe a bit more and really build the character. There’s something interesting there that could just continue as an ongoing comic, whether or not Dimaranan returns in the third movie.
In short, it’s all fun, it’s sincere, and it’s passionate. And since seeing it last weekend, my wife and I have been desperate for lumpia.
Full disclosure, and we had no idea going in: former Fanboy Planet contributor Mish’al Samman has a small role in this film, but by the time he appeared, we were already hooked.
