A outra face da America

I realize that my opinion itself may be biased, as I don't normally enjoy movies stuffed to bursting with violence, but I did not enjoy this film.

Although the basic plot of this movie may be socially relevant, I would not recommend it to anyone I know. The dialogue was stinted at best, and the actors did a poor job of adding any life or imagination.

I would, however, like to point out that with the limited resources he was given to work with, Joon B. Kim (Paul) gave an excellent performance. The other actors were not nearly as good in this film, but I would like to see Jonathon Gorman (Billy) in another role, as I saw a potential there that startled me.

Unfortunately I cannot bring myself to rate this at higher than a 3. The majority of it was just so unimaginative.

I saw this movie on late-late night television. For the most part, I enjoyed it. There weren't any useless scenes or many cheesy moments in this movie. The story flowed well and the script was quite realistic. The acting wasn't top-notch, but the performances of the majority of the characters were quite memorable.

The fight scenes in this movie were brilliant. They were well-choreographed for being in a seemingly low-budget movie. I must admit that I was actually laughing at some parts, though. Some of the hits were so unexpected that I couldn't help but laugh. The part I probably laughed the hardest at was this awesome man-to-man slap. It was hardcore. Another scene I found funny was a scene with no sound. For some reason a guy was yelling in slow motion (with no sound): "You motherfu*****!!". The situation wasn't funny, but I thought it was humorous considering it was on television.

Then there's the rest of the movie. The story is about Paul, the son of an Asian immigrant. His entire life involves constant harassment from everyone. The people he can trust are few. It's basically white males consistently beating up on Paul, and the only two people he can talk to are two white girls and his Korean friend. The racist undertones in this movie are quite imminent. The main villain, Billy, has a severe vendetta towards Paul, and is pretty much the reason for this movie to be so sad. Since the movie is based on a true story, my guess is that it is supposed to give a strong message against racism. The point is delivered quite efficiently.

All in all, it's a good movie. The music was very 90's-ish, almost annoying, but it does the job.

I rate it 7/10.