The cast and crew of the action-comedy film Lumpia with a Vengeance held a fan meeting at the June 14 Ohlone Flea Market to celebrate their streaming success on major platforms such as Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video.
Ohlone College Flea Market site supervisor Marissa Romano said the market is held every second Saturday of the month, filling up three parking lots. About 110 vendors participate in the event, selling food or merchandise. There’s a different car club that shows up every month to host a “Cars and Coffee” event. Romano also played a part in Lumpia with a Vengeance.
Lumpia with a Vengeance is a sequel to the movie Lumpia, which was filmed in the ’90s with a camcorder. Lumpia is a Filipino fried egg roll filled with variations of meat, shrimp and veggies.
During a warm, sunny morning, director Patricio Ginelsa stood in front of their booth under a canopy tent to express his feelings about the film being streamed on platforms like Tubi. “Being on Tubi is validation that movies like this deserve that kind of audience, that kind of representation. Especially coming from the Bay Area,” Ginelsa said, who was raised in Daly City.
Their booth had a couple of tables set up for a meet and greet between the fans and Kid Heroes Productions, the creative team behind the movie. Merchandise included action figures, pins, hats, DVD copies of the film and their comic book line.
Shot in Daly City, Lumpia with a Vengeance is about a high school student who gets entangled in a local crime ring. The lumpia-throwing hero works together with the student to save her parents’ wedding. The film explores themes of family, sacrifice and Filipino cultural pride. The 2020 movie included the famous actor Danny Trejo.
Ginelsa, founder of Kid Heroes Productions, began his filmmaking journey with Lumpia in 1997. “It’s also a love letter to my hometown of Daly City and my upbringing, and we just mask it as a cheesy action comedy you know,” he said with a laugh.
Holding up a DVD copy of Lumpia Ginelsa said, “We shot it with a camcorder. Just shot it with my friends in Daly City, the original movie was a lot of superheroes that fought crime with lumpia and protected the FOBs from the thugs.” FOBS is an acronym for “Fresh Off the Boat”—describing immigrants who have just arrived from another country.
From there, his first movie caught the attention of Variety, an entertainment industry news magazine. That moment sparked Ginelsa’s career, and he went on to direct a couple of Black Eyed Peas Music videos, including “Bebot.”
Ginelsa encouraged people to stream the movie. “Because it’s different. I mean how often do you see not only an actual comedy about a guy that throws lumpia, but like a Filipino American film actually shot in Daly City in the Bay Area? It’s unique in itself already.”
Kid Heroes Productions also has a comic book line that caught the attention of the San Diego Comic Con. They are participating in this year’s convention for the fifth consecutive year.
Compared to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Kid Heroes Productions took the reverse route. “It usually goes from comic book to movies,” said Ginelsa. “We started with a movie, and now we’re a comic book line!” Their 15 issues of comic books were all supported and funded by fans. They follow the story after the movie Lumpia with a Vengeance.
Ginelsa said their fanbase is broader than just the Asian American community. “Once we premiered there in San Diego Comic Con, we realized that our core audience wasn’t necessarily Filipino, Asian American,” Ginelsa said. “It was nerds—it was like the most open-minded folks really are the anime, the comic con, community. And that was a validation that this movie wasn’t just for Filipinos. That’s really what pushed us to get distribution.”
