Whatever Happened to Cosplay Nation 2011?

Let’s put ourselves back to twelve years ago when cosplaying was still a niche scene in the Philippines and just beginning to enter the mainstream via the Internet. Imagine someone offering you the chance to be in a film about your favorite hobby that will be released internationally, and not only that, but you get to collaborate with other cosplayers as well, only to never find out what happened to the documentary. It would be a mix of excitement and disappointment, wondering if the film was ever finished or released.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what happened to the Cosplay Nation film of 2011.

Not to be confused with the 2014 film “Cosplayer Nation,” the 2011 film Cosplay Nation explored the world of cosplay and its impact on the lives of those who participate in it. The film received positive reviews and was praised for its insightful portrayal of the cosplay community…if said film really exists.

In fact, the only pieces of evidence you can find online that such a film project existed during that time frame are this poster on the right and a few videos from the then queen of the Philippine cosplay scene’s YouTube channel.

One might choose to say that this is considered lost media like the Encarnacion Bechavez ads of old, others might say that this might be the Blood Circus of the 2010s wherein the supposed producers ran away with the footage to only grift the supposed backers and investors. Only time can reveal the actual reason why this movie has never been released, but it doesn’t hurt to look further into it, does it?

Supposedly, upon reading the plot of the film, Cosplay Nation would feature Sasa Li, played by Linda “Vampy Bit Me” Le, a daughter of a wealthy, conservative Chinese family who is known over the internet as a cosplayer.

This would then lead to a clash of cultures between “conservative” China and the more liberal and expressive world of cosplay, as Sasa pursues her dream to be a renowned cosplayer.

Where does the Philippines fit in all of this you say? This is where Alodia Gosiengfiao comes into the picture as she is one of the supporting characters in the film and she would be playing as…herself, or at least a version of herself in the film’s version of 2011. Not only that, some of the shooting for the film was done during ToyCon 2011 and this was before my introduction to the cosplay scene so I have no opinion on how the filming went.

With that out of the way, let’s find out what happened to the film and why it never got released anywhere.

Let’s start with the studio that’s supposed to be responsible for this film: Yian Studios.

Not much has been heard about them before or since, and if you look at their website, it only produces a 403 error. Putting said website on the Wayback Machine yields little results either, and none of them are about Cosplay Nation.

It’s possible that Cosplay Nation was a short-lived project that never gained much traction. Without further information, it’s difficult to determine what happened to them or why their website is no longer accessible.

What’s interesting to note as well is that on the Wayback Machine, typing the website’s URL would show not only a pop-up to use Flash Player but two names: One of them is Hangxiao Steel Structure, and I don’t know why it’s there, and the other is “Shanghai Yi’an Animation Production Co., Ltd.”

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Upon looking up “Shanghai Yi’an Animation Production Co., Ltd.”, it appears to be a Chinese animation studio that specializes in kids’ animation and other stuff, and searching their name on Google won’t produce anything in regards to Cosplay Nation, so we’ll skip them.

Next on the list is the director, Roy Chin. Searching “Roy Chin director” on Google would give you some results, but alas, nothing related to Cosplay Nation. It seems to me that whoever this Roy Chin is, he is not the same person who has been directing a lot of Chinese films since the 1980s. I don’t think that’s our guy, so we’ll skip on him too.

I don’t think that there’s a way to get in touch with Allen Van Dam who is the named producer of the film but according to his IMDB and LinkedIn pages, I don’t think that there’s a way to get in touch with the Allen Van Dam who is the named producer of the film but according to his IMDB and LinkedIn pages, he has worked on several notable films in the past, including “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” and “Ice Age: Meltdown”. He was also a member of the China Film Group from January 2008 to December 2014 so at the very least, the project has some legitimacy into this Cosplay Nation project.

So that leaves us two points of contact: Alodia and Vampy, and so where does this wild goose chase lead us? So far, I haven’t got any response from either Alodia or Vampy as of the time being.

If there is any evidence of this filming session or the fact that this movie ever existed, there are multiple videos of the ToyCon event that was used to promote the movie back in 2011, some photos on Alodia’s Facebook page, and some articles from ABS-CBN News about the whole damn thing.

Will the whole movie ever be released one day? Who knows? There have been instances where unfinished or unreleased movies have been released years later, so it’s not entirely impossible. However, it ultimately depends on the production company’s decision and the availability of the necessary resources to complete the movie. The only thing to do now is to wait.