Director Justin Lin on bringing compassion to John Allen Chau’s story
Justin Lin returns to indie cinema with "Last Days," exploring faith, identity, and humanity behind John Allen Chau’s controversial story
From left, actor Sky Yang and director Justin Lin on set of "Last Days."
Tanasak “Top” Boonlam
Words by Hoai-Tran Bui
When Justin Lin first heard the story of John Allen Chau, his immediate reaction wasn’t one of derision—as many had for the Evangelical Christian missionary who was killed when he attempted to make contact with the self-isolated Sentinelese people—but of intense personal sadness. The Fast and Furious and Star Trek Beyond director felt moved by the story of the 26-year-old American who illegally made his way to an island that had been off-limits for decades, at the cost of his life. But mostly, Lin felt shaken that the face being plastered all over the news channels looked like his.
“When the news broke in 2018, I was at the airport and I had a very strong reaction,” Lin says. “When they projected his face (on the news), of course I'm imposing all my Asian American issues onto him.”
At the time, Chau’s death was lumped in with the stories of human hubris, of figures who went out of their way to meet easily avoidable ends, like Christopher McCandless who died of starvation after attempting to survive in the wilderness, or spelunkers who get trapped in caves. But that glib reaction to Chau’s story didn’t sit right with Lin. “Who am I to judge and dismiss somebody within 20 seconds?” Lin recalls of his reaction at the time.
But it was a 2019 Outside Magazine article by Alex Perry, which went deep into Chau’s upbringing and heavily inspired screenwriter Ben Ripley’s script, that convinced Lin he had to make the film Last Days, about Chau’s story, which is out in theaters Friday. “I think it was important to see if I can try to connect with John's humanity,” Lin says.
And so, after more than two decades away from the independent filmmaking scene, Lin found himself back in the realm where he first made an explosive entrance with 2002’s Better Luck Tomorrow, a stylish and raw crime drama that quickly became a crucial pillar of Asian American cinema. Things have changed a lot for Asian American films in the years since then, but Lin found his long-awaited return to indie cinema to be strangely similar to his first go around.
“Every time you're trying to make an indie movie, there's certain rules that are trying to impose on you,” Lin says. “For us to basically resist that and say, ‘No, let's do what's best for this story, for our exploration,’ it ended up being this really challenging, but amazing journey for me. It took everybody from my 23 years of being a filmmaker from around the world to come and help me bring this story to life.”
I spoke with Lin about returning to independent filmmaking for the first time in 23 years, how things have changed for indie Asian American films since Better Luck Tomorrow, and what he brought from the Fast and Furious movies to Last Days.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Hoai-Tran Bui: Last Days focuses on John Allen Chau's upbringing with his immigrant Chinese dad and American mother. Was the struggle with his identity something that really spoke to you as a filmmaker?
Justin Lin: It's definitely there. When I did all the research, it was something that he also can't escape. As soon as you see this film, you see an Asian American face. I could feel that there's this sense of not wanting to be labeled, wanting for him to establish himself. And that's something that I think is very universal. It's a big part of the movie, but I also feel like, as Asian American cinema is growing, it's also our job to evolve and hopefully grow so that we can present these stories in a way that can connect with people—not just with Asian Americans, but with all different backgrounds.
HB: I know this is based on the Outside article by Alex Perry, but when doing your research, did you look into the Nat Geo documentary, The Mission, and did it have any influence on your film?
JL: It didn't really have influence because we were already pretty much shooting. But it probably had certain confirmations in what we were trying to do. I think part of this movie is not to change people's minds. It's not about finding the facts. It's really trying to explore this character and seeing if we can kind of connect with, again, his humanity, but also to not judge.
We've been very fortunate. We've had screenings at Sundance and I could see that there have been very different reactions. But what I love is that after a few minutes of talking, people are able to find something that they can agree with, with John, with his approach, with his journey. And I think that's something that we need more today in our world: to be able to kind of have dialogue.
HB: It would be very easy to make Last Days much more judgmental of John's quest and his relationship with his faith. But you play it very sincerely with regards to his relationship with religion. What went into your decision to toe that line in terms of how the movie actually feels about his religion?
JL: I feel like (many filmmakers) feel pressure to go, "Hey, you have to impose your worldview right away." And I would say even making Better Luck Tomorrow, a lot of people assume that when they see that film that, "Hey, that's you, right?" And I'm like, "No, that's not me." I'm a working class kid. I'm actually of another generation.
I love films where you get dropped into a specific character, a specific world, and we're not judging and we're hopefully finding some sort of human connection to these characters into their journey. That was something that I felt was important for this because I think it could go either way. Many times this is also the challenge for this film because it doesn't fit into any box.
Sky Yang as John Allen Chau.
Courtesy of Vertical
HB: I like that the film is structured into flashbacks of John Chau's upbringing and investigation in the present day into his disappearance. You get to tap into your thriller skills that you've honed over the course of many Fast and Furious movies with that storyline. What was the difference filming the police procedural storyline on a much smaller budget than you're probably used to with the Fast movies?
JL: It took every skill that I had from indie movies, from shooting TV, because this is a huge-scale movie. We shot in five countries in 38 days, and so we had to move. And I give our cast a lot of credit. I think Radhika (Apte), who plays Mira (in the police procedural storyline) brought so much humanity to that character, when it was just very artificial to begin with. And it pays off at the end because, for me personally, her worldview is closest to my worldview. And for her to be able to really bring all the layers of that character without us ever pointing it out or having to spell it out for the audience, it really made all the difference.
HB: It's been 23 years since Better Look Tomorrow put you on the map and introduced such an essential piece of Asian American cinema to the world. What is it like returning to the independent film scene after so long and what has changed since you first made Better Luck Tomorrow to when you made Last Days?
JL: I would say it's humbling, and I'm grateful. When you do indie movies, it's usually because everyone's telling you no. “You don't have this. You're supposed to do it this way.” And I think the world has changed a lot. Indie films are really tough. The fact that I am sitting here in a room talking to you means the world. Twenty-three years ago, I remember sitting in a marketing meeting with Paramount and they were drawing this piece of pie, and it was (just) Caucasian viewers. There was no Asian American on the pie. And I said, well, "Where's the Asian American on this pie?" And they said, "Well, their spending patterns are the same as white people, so we just consider them white."
And now that I've been able to work on these studio films and I'm seeing all the marketing, all the numbers, all the data, I would say that it's still a struggle. And I think for Asian Americans, if they know that the power actually is supporting independent films because they're much smaller in scale, so when they do show up, it really puts them on the radar. And I don't want to say this as homework or anything like that, but just all these things that I've learned as a filmmaker. I'm lucky enough to be able to tell these stories and be able to work nonstop for over two decades. But at the same time, making films is only a fraction of my day.
Working with studios, learning about marketing within an Asian American context, that was very important to me. And I try to share that with people that want to listen and participate. But I would say that the biggest thing I've learned is that it's still going out (to see the movies). And if you can give two hours of your time and you want to hopefully connect with a story, it means a lot. And if you don't, share with someone that might. That's still the power of indie cinema. Because believe me, I've done the tentpoles and the machine, once it gets going, I don't have to worry about it. It's going. But indie, you're earning every eyeball, you're earning every engagement, and it makes a difference.
Published on October 24, 2025
Words by Hoai-Tran Bui
Hoai-Tran Bui is the Senior Entertainment Editor at Inverse. She previously was an editor and film critic at SlashFilm, and her work has appeared in USA Today and The Washington Post. She is a Rotten Tomatoes-certified critic and co-hosts a Doctor Who/Star Trek podcast called Trekking Through Time and Space.