Behold the Brainy Bad Asses

It definitely had an effect. I grew up in Orange County. That wasn't the only case that happened; there was a rash of cases that came up. It blew me away. I was in college around the time [of the Tay case], and when I heard about it, I said, "Oh, my God, I used to play basketball a couple of miles from that school." I knew people who went to Sunny Hills. It was very disturbing to me, and it affected me on many levels.

In a way, as disturbed and shocked as I was, I could relate to a certain level to the angst and anger, and that's where the impetus for this film came from. When we started off working on the project, writing the script, I thought that these are the issues I want to explore.

It's funny, but I've gotten to know the Stuart Tay case even more after making the film. I consciously did not want to base the film entirely on it because there were a lot of issues I wanted to deal with myself . . . out of respect to the people who were involved in that case. I have no idea what exactly happened. I don't know those characters. I wanted kind of to distance the film from them but at the same time deal with certain issues in a way I'm sure are very relatable.

I think by doing that, people are thinking that, okay, they're Asian, and there's violence, so it must be the Tay case. It just shows we need to look closer. There are similarities, but it's actually very different.

I don't think so at all. It'll only be a danger if I didn't do my job, if the characters in this film were caricatures or one-dimensional. I did not make this film to say, "Hey, look, everybody in the world! This film is about every Asian American." It's not! It's so specific to the point that it's upper-middle class, Asian American, male, honor roll, teen, Academic Decathlon kids.

That also shows a lack of representation in cinema because the ideal situation is that we have three Asian American films at any given time in theaters, and one of them might be a dark film that deals with violence, another one could be a sweet, romantic comedy. And that's what makes cinema.

Really, it's out of respect for those films. I think those issues have been explored, and they have been well-done. I grew up watching those films, and, wow, I'm very proud that I got to see Asian American experiences; I got to see them dealing with family issues. I'm so glad those issues have been dealt with before, and they will be dealt with, I'm sure, with time, but there are other perspectives that have never been seen before.

No. Again, I'm saying this is a very specific experience. These are kids who are, literally, too smart for their own good. I'm not making generalized statements by any means. . . . It's not a documentary, and believe me, documentaries are also very subjective. I've made those, too.

Totally. Class is something that gets lost in American discourse overall. We're so preoccupied with race. Class plays a big role in the film. These are kids who, in dealing with glass ceilings, are looking up and down.

That's a very simplified reaction. It's okay. I hope people who think that will voice their opinion and talk to others who may not agree. In a sense, we are so used to things being wrapped up in 90 minutes. I don't want a pat ending.

With teen violence, the kids don't disappear. They grow, and they live on whether they get caught or not. There are consequences; there are reactions to their actions; there are emotions to their actions. That's what I want to portray in this film. I want people to watch the film, and when the credits roll, they have to think for themselves. If I've done my job, hopefully, they'll ask themselves: How did these kids in the beginning of the film get to where they got to in the end? And what's going to happen to them now that all this craziness has happened? If they can ask those two questions, wow, I feel that's the intent of the movie, to ask, 'Why, why, why?' I don't have the answers myself, but the only way everyone is going to have these answers is to raise these questions and talk amongst themselves.