W H A T I T W A S

In 1998, Starwheels Productions began shooting Watermelon Sushi in Los Angeles. With black & white scenes depicting post-war Japan, the 90-minute feature narrative is equal parts comedy & drama.

Following 7 days of a 10-day scheduled shoot, a 4 1/2 minute trailer was edited & distributed. You can see it on Youtube, but be forewarned--it hasn't held up well after 25 years: Watermelon Sushi trailer

Because cross-cultural, interracial, mixed-race & transracial adoptee communities proclaimed their love for this film, a line of t- shirts was created as an opportunity to financially support & reshoot it. Buy a Hapa*Teez t-shirt & get a rear crawl credit for helping make this film. Hapa*Teez video

W H A T I T I S

Welcome aboard our new Executive Producer, award-winning independent filmmaker, Doug Ing! His photo appears on our Go Fund Me page. Earlier this year, Doug financed transfers of our original beta tapes to digital files. Recently, he had the original 16mm reels processed in 8K. Sugoi!

W H A T I T W I L L B E

Starwheels Productions will edit an updated version (with an updated script) using the newly processed footage alongside AI, animation & other elements that will reflect an authentically vintage 1980’s hiphop look. A soundtrack album featuring old school rappers & Japanese enka singers will also be produced & distributed. Most likely, we'll fundraise for music licensing. In addition to t-shirts, we’ll also be offering posters & other collectibles for sale to help finance the film.