The first independent film to be picked up by MTV Films for distribution. The film was financed with credit cards and with money raised independently by the filmmakers. The actors deferred their salaries. Although some people thought that the film was inspired by the 1992 murder of Stuart Tay, an Asian-American youth who was killed by four of his peers on New Year's Eve in Orange County, California, filmmaker Justin Lin has stated that "at the very beginning of the writing process, [h ...[Read Story ]