Director Jhett Tolentino’s Asian Persuasion is a romantic comedy strongly focused on Filipino culture in New York. Filipino chef Mickey de los Santos (Dante Basco) is a slacker who devises an outlandish plan to avoid alimony payments to his fashion executive ex-wife, Avery (KC Concepcion).
Mickey seems checked out at the final meeting with his wife’s divorce attorney. Having no lawyer with him and glossing over the arrangements, he asks just to sign the papers. Of primary concern is Mickey and Avery’s daughter Sam (Scarlett Sher), but Mickey is not thinking through what this divorce will mean for the kid. Back out on the street, his friends are concerned about how he will meet alimony obligations and stay on his feet, but he has no plan. He says, “Things have a way of working themselves out.” However, it’s clear that this Modus Operandi is what landed him in this sorry state.
When it becomes obvious that he won’t be able to pay Avery from his small coffee shop income, he stumbles upon a desperate plan. He makes an online dating profile posing as his ex-wife with the intention of catfishing someone into marrying her, thus canceling the alimony. Hilarity and chaos ensue as he vets men for Avery.
“…romantic comedy strongly focused on Filipino culture in New York…”
Mickey engineers a meet-cute between Avery and a man they find online named Lee (Paolo Montalban), and since Mickey knows Avery better than anyone, he provides Lee with real-time Cyrano De Bergerac-esque prompts in an earpiece so Lee can tell her exactly what she wants to hear. Will Mickey find someone suitable that Avery will like? If he’s successful, will he be pleased with how it plays out?
Actor Edmund Gwenn is reported to have said on his deathbed, “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” That struggle is real here for Tolentino. There’s a crass bit in a restaurant where we know a woman is French because she’s wearing a beret and has an outrageous, exaggerated accent. She tells a story about a date accidentally using her prosthetic leg as firewood. So, ringing up the comedy register: insulting French caricature, a woman with one leg, with her artificial leg tossed into a fire. It’s just goofy, and it gets worse as it goes. The comedy fails. The soundtrack is also trying too hard. It’s R&B and hip-hop and seems to be a poor fit for this story. It feels targeted to a younger, urban demographic, aiming for puerile humor like Superbad.
Fear not. However, all is not lost. Where the movie finds its footing in a startlingly good way when Mickey figures out his man-child ways and friends have cost him his wife and happy life. Then, the film turns toward dramatic performances and themes. Basco and Concepcion take center stage, and all of a sudden, against all odds, we have a movie. We see them in happier times in flashbacks and the film gels. The other shining stars are Filipino culture and food. Tolentino showcases each element in a compelling way.
As romantic comedies go, there’s nothing new here, it is boilerplate we’ve seen before: arrested development derails adult life. Shenanigans are engaged to try to preserve extended adolescence. Real life drops in like an ICBM, and the main characters either grow up or fade away. That said, if you’ll forgive the silly first and second acts and dig into the main dish of Asian Persuasion, your patience will be rewarded.
"…Basco and Concepcion take center stage, and all of a sudden, against all odds, we have a movie..."
