APA Month Day 23 – director Justin Lin

Chinese American director Justin Lin learned his trade form the UCLA Film School. The film that put him on the map was “Better Luck Tomorrow”. This film made waves at The Sundance Film Festival when a member of the audience asked how Justin & co. could “make a film as so empty and amoral for Asian Americans and for Americans”. Movie critic Roger Ebert stepped up and defended the film. In 2002, Justin made it on Variety Magazine’s “Ten Directors to Watch”. From independent films, he jumped into Hollywood films. His first studio picture was Annapolis, which was greeted with mixed reviews, but found an audience in DVDs. His next film was “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” which took in almost $160 million worldwide. This was an amazing feat considering this was a whole new cast from the original “The Fast and the Furious”. Drifting became the “in” thing. Justin Lin went back to indie flix by directing the hilarious “Finishing the Game: The Search for a New Bruce Lee”. Currently, Justin Lin is filming “The Fast and the Furious 4”

Watch this short documentary “BUILDING A JOURNEY: FROM BETTER LUCK TOMORROW TO FINISHING THE GAME” – Part 1 of 3:

Part 2 of 3:

Part 3 of 3:

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