Ke Huy Quan’s acting career comeback is one of the most heartwarming and wholesome entertainment stories of the 2020s, and his acting career continues to thrive as he is now starring in his first leading action role. Of course, we saw him do some action in Everything Everywhere All at Once, but his new film is a straight up actioner built around Ke. It’s called Love Hurts, and it’s produced by David Leitch and Kelly McCormick’s 87North, the company behind action films like Nobody, Violent Nights, and The Fall Guy.
In Love Hurts, a Valentine’s Day themed action movie, Ke stars as Marvin, a realtor with a dark past. As a fan of Nobody, in which Bob Odenkirk plays a regular Joe with a dark past, I am going to go ahead and assume Love Hurts and Nobody take place in the same universe until told otherwise. I’m stoked to see Ke star in an action film, not least because during his two-decade absence from acting, he worked as a stunt coordinator. Having been on the other side of the camera, planning and executing stunts, should give him an understanding of stunt performance not many actors have. I’m interested to see how that contributes to his performance of action on camera.
I love the look of Love Hurts, and I especially love that it unites Ke and Ariana DeBose, who presented him with his Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2023. Ke’s career since EEAAO put him back on the map has been going pretty well, but since winning her own Oscar in 2022, DeBose has struggled to find film work worthy of her myriad talents. I’m not saying Love Hurts looks like an Oscar movie—it doesn’t—but it does look like a movie where she gets to play a fun character and show off some her natural charisma on camera. Better than she’s getting a lot of other places!
I don’t love how much this trailer gives away, but they’re clearly playing by John Wick rules. The trailer for John Wick gives a lot away, too, but in that case it’s because the filmmakers, including David Leitch, knew no trailer could ever prepare you for how hard that movie goes. I watch the John Wick trailer now—ten entire years later!—and I’m struck by how much of the film it gives away, but I also know that in the context of the full film, all of that stuff is far better than any commercial can make it appear. I’m hoping that’s the case with Love Hurts, that within the full film, all of this stuff is better, cooler, more fun. I’m certainly betting on the cast elevating the concept. Besides Ke and DeBose, the cast includes Bottoms stand out Marshawn Lynch, Rhys Darby, Sean Astin, Daniel Wu, and Mustafa Shakir. That’s a lot of fun and cool people in a movie that will hopefully be fun and cool.
