Ben Manibag (Parry Shen) is an overachieving perfectionist in academics and everything else to add more and varied achievements to his college applications. His longtime friend Virgil Hu (Jason Tobin) is a wild screw-up. They always follow Virgil's quietly confident cousin Han (Sung Kang) and they do petty crimes. Soon, the crimes become bigger and more dangerous. They become notorious, admired, and feared by all the students and acquaintances with their rumored connections to the mafia. Meanwhile, Ben falls for adopted Asian student Stephanie Vandergosh.
This is the beginning of an East Asian American invasion into mainstream Hollywood. Director Justin Lin would even connect this movie to the Fast & Furious franchise through Han. It includes interesting actors like John Cho. I do think that these are not the toughest guys around. It is a gated community so the kids could be naive enough to believe that they are part of the triad. Also, Justin Lin is trying out a lot of camera moves. The one that he seems to be missing is the Reservoir Dogs slow walk. He's still not pulling together everything but most of it works. Although I find Parry Shen fits this role, he's not a natural leading man type. The group is not always worth rooting for nor fearsome. It feels slightly like play-acting. More than anything, this is an opening for all this talent which would have been ignored in years past.
This is the beginning of an East Asian American invasion into mainstream Hollywood. Director Justin Lin would even connect this movie to the Fast & Furious franchise through Han. It includes interesting actors like John Cho. I do think that these are not the toughest guys around. It is a gated community so the kids could be naive enough to believe that they are part of the triad. Also, Justin Lin is trying out a lot of camera moves. The one that he seems to be missing is the Reservoir Dogs slow walk. He's still not pulling together everything but most of it works. Although I find Parry Shen fits this role, he's not a natural leading man type. The group is not always worth rooting for nor fearsome. It feels slightly like play-acting. More than anything, this is an opening for all this talent which would have been ignored in years past.