This was obviously done on little or no budget, and they make the most of it. Sam (Sung Kang), gone for a year, returns to Los Angeles to get revenge for his friend who was killed in a drug deal gone bad, and to get back his girlfriend. The film is told in minimalist fashion, with a definite film noir attitude. The story is pretty straightforward, but serves to reveal Sam's inner turmoil. While most of the characters/actors are Asian American, and part of the film is set in LA's Koreatown, this does not figure in the story, and in fact there is only one moment--when Sam visits his dead friend's father--that we see something culturally Korean (at least, I think it is culturally Korean--I'm not Korean myself) and expresses his grief at the news he has to tell the father.

I found the film not exciting, but interesting, as a character study of someone who has done some wrong things and expects others to help him dig himself out.

• Russell Wong got the part of Leon by doing a Christopher Walken impersonation for the casting agent.
• Bobby Lee needed to re-do the dialog for his scenes in a sound booth. He did the entire re-dub in the nude.