Fast Money - About the Film

In this powerful urban drama, award-winning writer-director Jerry Chan explores the brutal Asian gang phenomenon of home invasion robberies and its impact on an insular immigrant community. Jin (Archie Kao, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) enlists the help of a violent gang buddy to exact revenge on Mr. Fong (Dana Lee, Lethal Weapon 4), a Chinatown gift shop owner who has recently fired him for dealing drugs in the store. As night falls, Jin's pursuit of "fast money" results in unintended consequences that will forever change his life.

Fast Money is adapted from a fictional short story by Danny Amaro, a former gang member who is now part of a Christian gang outreach program dedicated to reaching out to current gang members before it's too late. The story may by fictional, but the brutal reality of life in a gang is not. The U.S. Department of Justice reported 1,061 gang-related homicides in 1998 (OJJDP Fact Sheet, March, 2001 #3).

Once a trademark of Asian gangs, home invasion robberies involve gang members breaking into the home of recent Asian immigrants or business owners, tying up the victims, and torturing them until they reveal the location of their hidden money and jewelry. Reports of home invasion robberies have declined in recent years, but in the 80s and 90s, Asian gangs were notorious for committing these very brutal robberies on members of their own community. As noted in Asian Gangs: A Bibliography, several factors contributed towards this phenomenon:

First, Asians, especially the recent immigrants and business owners, often do not put money in banks. For many of them, banking is a completely new experience, since many Asians came from countries where banking services have yet to be fully established. Thus, instead of putting money in the banks as most Americans do, they keep their money at home or invest it in jewelry, especially gold...

Second, Asian gangs also recognize that they are not likely to get prosecuted for their crimes against other Asians because most Asians are unlikely to call or report the crimes to the police... . To many Asians, law enforcement officials represent a source of extreme terror rather than a source of help or service. This misconception was deeply cultivated by the social and political conditions in the places from which they came...

To many Asians, talking about the criminal activities committed by Asians against their own people in public (e.g., reporting the crimes to the police or the mass media) is an admission of failure not only of the ones who committed the crimes, but also of the entire Asian community. This notion of collective shame is deeply rooted in the teachings of Confucianism, in which the whole community must share the blame for individual failures, since individuals are parts of the community. Moreover, many Asians have attempted to present a positive image of themselves to the American public. Consequently, they downplay their shortcomings in their struggle for respectability and acceptance by the American people.

QUICK FACTS:

Running Time: 14 Minutes

Exhibition Format: HDCAM

Shooting Format: Super 16mm

Production
Dates: April 2-12, 2005

Filming Locations: Los Angeles (Chinatown + Downtown), Venice, CA

Produced to fulfill the requirements of the USC
School of Cinema-Television MFA Production Program

"Asian criminals grew up accustomed to blood and violent death. They prefer places that cater to Chinese because those people are afraid to go to the police. The victims know police cannot be there all the time - and they know the gangs can be there 24 hours a day. They can get you."

— Asian shop owner
From "Terror in the Streets," Maclean's. March 25, 1991