One of the touchstones requisite for success of any cinematic effort is formation of characters in whom a viewer might become interested, and in this film, in the face of depicted sequences that often lack originality, and somewhat uninspired playing by a cast light on experience, Phil Gorn, serving as producer/writer/director/editor manages nonetheless, and with a wee budget, to create a work that is consistently engrossing despite expected shortcomings. Deservedly gaining the Grand Festival Award at the Berkeley Video and Film event, Gorn's piece, although ostensibly considered an updated version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, is actually more focused upon an even more timeless subject, the principle of loyalty, evoked despite palpable terrors of street gang activity, manifested in this instance by opposing White and Asian groups based in the Richmond District of northwest San Francisco. Along with the disapproval by gang members, the young lovers (the leader of the White Knights, and the sister of a slain Asian head) additionally must face unwelcome requests from their respective families to separate, and strongly voiced racially motivated constraints from within their neighbourhoods, as the pair of small opposing gang sets struggle for territorial control, while attempting to evade police department personnel, with the plot development sandwiching these happenings between the film's dramatic opening and closing sequences of suspenseful and deadly Russian roulette competition between gang bosses as a means of settling their dispute without resorting to an all-out gang war. Shot with videotape, the film is never less than watchable, supported by creative visuals from the director and cameraman Gary Rohan along with able sound processing by Monroe Cummings, and although fiscal resources are too meagre for needed retakes, director Gorn only infrequently departs from his nicely structured storyline, leading his cast well, with Ava Mendoza, a natural actress, earning the performing laurels here for her turn as a latter-day Juliet (Julie).
