scissorkick

I watched his previous two specials, they are all funny as well, but this one started a little slow, plus his canceled TV show "Lucky Louis" made me a little nervous, perhaps he is slipping a little? No such luck, said Louis, 5 more minutes, he got into his new material about "Duck Vaginas", "Hating people in post office", "Bag of dicks", "Having had sex with some pretty chicks and being their bottom", "Most pathetic hand job", "Being fat", "Asshole kid daughter" etc, I found myself laughing out LOUD, almost non-stop, I found myself thinking, "Louis did it again, I got to tell all my friends to watch this! Even my girlfriend who usually does not like vulgar material", this is simply too funny!

Many comics makes me smile or even giggle, and occasionally you got people like Richar Pryor, Bill Costby, or more recently Bill Burr who can make me laugh out loud, but not throughout the show. The kind of HEARTY laughs that shake your entire body violently, you know what I am talking about? That's what this "Shameless" can do to you, what I felt afterwords is a little "shameful" as I suspect some people would feel since most of the material is dirty and offbeat, you almost feel a cringe as you laugh at it, but you just can't help it.

It is simply a, to use a cliché, "Must Watch".

I went and saw the movie in San Jose's Camera One cinema and here is my review:

I am happy to report that it is indeed pretty good movie save for a few minor plot holes.

On the positive side, I LOVE Perry Shen's acting, it is very polished, mature and right on the mark with the circumstances, he never overreached himself.

Also this is definitely a positive step in terms on portraying Asian Americans as multifaceted characters with feelings, emotions, vices just like everyone else.

However, I do agree with one earlier review about this film's pandering to the larger audience by almost completely (but consciously and purposefully) sidestepping the main characters' ethnicity as if they thought by doing so the audience would forget that they were all Asians. The very fact of this contrived self denying of story's racial identity makes it lose its edge and ultimately fall victim to the other more subtle Asian stereotype, that is instead of being who they are, they are always trying to imitate (the mainstream), thus coming off as unoriginal.

Also, it seems out of character for Ben to do really bad things, since for most of film the audience is supposed to identify with him, he is supposed to be the good guy (albeit confused) with a conscience, in the end he didn't seem to have too much of guilty conscience.

Also some of characters could've been more fully developed, some of these guys come off a bit mysterious than I am sure the director intended. The dialogue couldn't used a little wit and edge, and the killing scene was a little reaching, it didn't quite make sense to me that they had to kill the guy after injuring him. And I thought the sex scene with the Vegas hooker was a little gratuitous.

Overall though I think Justin Lin deserves kudos for having the guts to stick to his vision and make it indie and for doing a very admirable job at that. Although I don't really think this deserves this much attention on its own merits, I think it's benefiting from the being the first real outlet for a strong long standing current of latent Asian Americans' angst of having been misrepresented/underrepresented, made fun of, ridiculed and ultimately marginalized in the media; but then again, we'll take a break whenever and where we'll get one as long as we keep a clear mind and acknowledge it.

In conclusion, as a Asian American dude myself, I give it a yellow :)thumb up, I think we can certainly expect more from Justin Lin in the future. I wish him even "better luck" on his next film.