The Cut Runs Deep

Executive Producer: Kim Seung Bum
Producer: Ha Kwang Hwi
Director of Photography: Walter Gregg
Editor: Hamm Sung Won
Cast: Alex Manning, David McInnis, Gio Park, Wellington Yang

Identity lies at the heart of John H. Lee's THE CUT RUNS DEEP, a blistering but elegant portrayal of a Korean street gang in New York City battling the world and each other. It's a hard-knock life for Ben, a 16-year-old half-Korean delivery boy in Queens. By day, he bikes all over his Jackson Heights neighborhood, delivering greasy food to ungrateful customers, then bunks down in his cramped quarters in the restaurant's basement at night. So when a chance encounter with the enigmatic hapa leader of a local street gang leaves Ben with the opportunity to create a new life, he's literally burning at the chance. Under the watchful eye of his new mentor, J.D., Ben fights his way to the front lines of the extortion rackets, shacking up with a beautiful prostitute along the way. Happiness doesn't come easy, however, and Ben soon finds his new life as fragile and painful as the ones he's left behind. The characters are on a search for themselves, and the film deftly mirrors their sense of mixed identity. Touching love scenes are juxtaposed against fight scenes of an intensity not seen since RAGING BULL, and the film keeps you guessing what's coming next.

Thomas Connors