[Narrator] We never expected to have freedom
or independence or equality in this country
but it doesn't matter what the challenges are.
You run through that wall.
(glass shattering)
- The inspiration for "Boogie" is really my own personal
experience as an immigrant in America,
where I was born into a family and a home that was very,
very Taiwanese Chinese traditional.
But you have a choice to make as an immigrant
in this country.
Are you gonna stick to your native home culture
and just try to carve out a space for that in this country?
Or are you going to engage the American wilderness,
participate in the experiment and absorb, adapt, change?
Bring your culture, but also participate in others.
And that's Boogie's question.
- No one believes in an Asian basketball player.
♪ Have mercy on my soul ♪
It's a joke in this country.
- It's a journey about this basketball player who
wants to make it to the NBA,
but for him to make it he has to reconcile a lot
of the values and the things his parents have taught him.
The way his parents have taught him to act,
the way his parents act.
And then how it translates to other people not
from his culture.
♪ Yeah, I don't cry no more ♪
- You don't wanna know what's going on in my house.
My mom, she's responsible, but she doesn't believe in me.
♪ Have mercy on me ♪
- I had initially wanted to do a full soundtrack
with golden era hip hop, mainly like Raekwon Ghostface
because I loved "Only Built for Cuban Link" as a kid.
And I loved how it was narrated by John Woo, The Killer.
And I was gonna use Raekwon's voice and songs
to narrate a lot of "Boogie".
To show kind of African American
and Asian art coming full circle.
Like John Woo had influenced and inspired Raekwan
to make black music.
And then black music was gonna come around
and influence Asian cinema.
And that was a big dream of mine
but it ended the moment I met Pop.
And I was happy to let it go.
I was just like, "That's not the universe's plan."
And everything he was doing with Brooklyn drill,
was taking over New York.
Immediately. I told Focus this is now a Brooklyn drill film.
From the day we cast Pop this is a Brooklyn drill film
and it not only now represents an Asian American experience
or New York experience
but now it is a time capsule forever capturing this energy
in this moment
and this musical movement that we will never forget.
(whistle blowing)
- What's up, wonton soup?
- Come on, back in the locker room.
- All right, all right.
- Yo, get off him.
- Pop actually plays Monk in the film
and on paper he's considered a villain.
But I never saw him as a villain
and even when you look at the script,
he's not described as a villain.
He's a maestro, he's a samurai.
He is the best basketball player in all of the nation,
in New York city.
And he's somebody that Boogie has to play against.
- What's up, egg roll?
♪ You can run up if you want ♪
- You know, today's also the anniversary of Pop passing.
I like had a dream we were still hanging out
on set last night.
I woke up in a fog and I'm still just very sad
about everything that has happened
but I do feel quite a bit of responsibility
because this is his last work.
We have some of his last songs in the film.
I remember talking to him
about a lot of the songs, the final songs.
And I could just tell from the moment I'm met Pop,
he was straight up supernova, you know.
He could do anything he wanted to do.
And I noticed it very early and I tried to capture as much
of that talent as I could for this film.
And even off of the script
I just started to carve out more space for him in scenes.
Any day I had Pop on set we would do extra takes,
extra angles, improv and it really felt like me
and him were just playing ball.
'Cause we'd shoot a scene.
We'd huddle.
I'd tell the audio guy to turn his mic off
and my mic off and we'd surprise the other actors
with lines or jokes or pranks.
And I thank the other actors for participating in it
and engaging it and they loved it
because you know the movie was set up one way.
But once we met Pop we all knew
that this movie was forever changed.
The movie I wrote was going to another place.
- This has always been about you.
You're playing to beat Monk.
So what are you gonna do?
♪ You can run up if you want ♪