1. Justin Lin
Justin Lin is my inspiration as a film director. He is a Taiwanese born American film
director whose movies have grossed $2 billion worldwide. HE is best known for his
work in movies such as Better Luck Tomorrow, the Fast and the Furious Franchise
and the television show Community.
Lin was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and grew up in a working-class neighborhood
in Orange County, California. He attended University of California, San Diego for
two years before transferring to UCLA, where he earned an MFA in film directing
from the UCLA Film School.
Shopping for Fangs was Justin Lin's first feature film, which he co-directed with
fellow UCLA Film School alumnus, Quentin Lee when they were still at UCLA.
Feature Films
Lin's solo directorial debut was Better Luck Tomorrow. The film premiered at
the Sundance Film Festival in 2002. In a question and answer session following a
festival screening, and in response to an audience member who asked director Lin
if he thought it was irresponsible to portray Asian-Americans in such a negative
light, Roger Ebert stood up and said, angrily, "You wouldn't say that to a white
filmmaker". Ebert's approval of the film drew the attention of major studios,
leading eventually to MTV Films buying the film for distribution, making it MTV
Films very first acquisition. The film was also an official selection of the
2002 Toronto International Film Festival, and was also nominated for a Grand Jury
Prize at 2002 Sundance and the John Cassavetes Award at the 2004Independent
Spirit Awards. The film arguably launched Lin's career into directing larger budget
films, and Variety magazine also named him one of the "Top 10 Directors to
Watch" in 2002. His second feature film (and first film to be produced and
distributed by a large studio, Touchstone Pictures) was Annapolis, which
starred James Franco, Tyrese Gibson, Donnie Wahlberg, and Jordana Brewster.

2. The film cost $26 million to make, but it only ended up grossing $17 million
worldwide.
His third feature film, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, was released in North
American cinemas on June 16, 2006. Despite mixed reviews, Tokyo Drift brought in
over $24 million on its opening weekend. As of January 28, 2007, the domestic box
office take has totaled $62,514,415 with another $95,953,877 from the foreign
box office, resulting in total receipts of $158,468,292. With Tokyo Drift, Lin would
establish his reputation as the director of all the succeeding The Fast and the
Furious films in the franchise. He was initially approached to direct the film after
the success of Better Luck Tomorrow at Sundance and after wrapping his first
studio film Annapolis, but merely wanted some "conditions," as the script was
about "cars drifting around Buddhist statues and geisha girls Instead, Lin wanted
to make a film that about Japan, which was "much more postmodern" as he
mentioned, and intended to do a film on a more global scale that went against
preconceived stereotypes.
After Tokyo Drift, Lin went on to do an independent film finishing the Game, which
is a comedic interpretation of the events surrounding the production of Bruce Lee's
final film, Game of Death. It premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, and
was also selected as the opening night film at the 25th San Francisco International
Asian American Film Festival, the 23rd Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, the
30th Asian American International Film Festival in New York, the Disorient Film
Festival of Oregon, the Asian Film Festival of Dallas, the 2007 DC Asian Pacific
American Film Festival, and the 11th Annual Vancouver.
Lin returned to direct Fast & Furious, the fourth in the film series, which opened on
April 3, 2009. On its first day of release the movie grossed $30.5 million, and
peaked at the top spot of the weekend box office with $70,950,500. It held the
title for the highest-grossing opening weekend ever in April at that time. As of
May 24, 2009 the film has grossed a total of US$345,755,411 worldwide. Lin
directed and released the follow-up film Fast Five in 2011, which holds the title for
the highest-grossing opening weekend ever in April, with an estimated $83.6

3. million, and of any car-oriented film. The prior record was held by Cars, which
grossed $60.1 million. Fast Five also broke box office records for being the second
highest spring opening weekend, and surpassed Fast & Furious (2009) to become
the highest-grossing film in the franchise. Fast Five has grossed over $625 million
worldwide, making it number 63 on the all-time worldwide list of highest-grossing
films (in unadjusted dollars), and the seventh highest-grossing film of 2011.
Lin continued to direct the films of the series with its sixth installment, Fast &
Furious 6. It became the largest Memorial Day Weekend gross for a Universal
movie ever (a record $120 million for a worldwide total of $317 million), also
nearly doubling the gross of The Hangover Part III. It also became the highest
grossing Universal Pictures movie in the UK. The film's opening weekend gross in
the UK was the largest out of any other of the series. Specifically in the UK, the
film took $4.4 million during its opening day from 462 screens, the biggest
opening day for both The Fast and the Furious franchise and Universal in that
market, the second-highest opening of 2013 behind Iron Man 3 ($4.7 million), and
the number 1 film of the day with 54% of the market. In the UK, the film also
finished as the number one film of the weekend, taking a total of $13.8 million;
this figure made it the biggest opening for the franchise, Universal, a Vin Diesel or
Dwayne Johnson film, and the second-biggest opening of 2013 again behind Iron
Man 3 ($17.6 million). The film has also performed relatively well critically: for
instance, on Met critic, it has "generally favorable reviews” and on Rotten
Tomatoes the film scores higher than a 73% with a 95% audience approval rating.
Filmography
Shopping for fangs (1997)
Interactions (2000)
Crossover (2000)
Better luck tomorrow (2002)
Spotlighting (2005)
Annapolis (2006)
The fast and the furious: Tokyo Drift (2007)
Finishing the game (2007)

4. Fast and furious (2009)
Fast five(2011)
Fast and furious 6(2013)
Why is Lin my inspiration?
Justin Lin is my inspiration because at such a young age when he was just a
newcomer in the industry, his films won the hearts of many people. He not only
won several awards but his movies were also played in film festivals around the
globe. At such a young age he achieved so much. He also keeps his cultural
heritage alive by showing it in his movies such as Better Luck Tomorrow. He does
that to remove preconceived stereotypes in our society.
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Lin