Season 9, Ep. 8: Crush the Skull

For this week's Saturday School, the 8th out of our 10-episode semester on Stars of Asian American Cinema, we are talking about Viet Nguyen's 2015 horror comedy "Crush The Skull." 

It's co-written by Nguyen and Chris Dinh, who also stars in the film. It also features a memorable performance by Tim Chiou -- and to whoever did the lighting for their arm muscles, good work. 

But we can't talk about Chris Dinh, the action/comedy/horror/romantic lead in an award-winning indie film, without contextualizing his stardom as a product of two worlds colliding. By the late-2000s, Asian American independent cinema was joined by a fresh crop of YouTube stars, including Wong Fu Productions, who had movie ambitions of their own.