These antagonistic groups must put their rivalries aside to generate a real estate package for white businessmen who want to build an NFL stadium in the harbor. In an apt image of the global economy, Chinese and African American crime syndicates must do the dirty work of terrorism, land-grabbing, and coercion in order to do business with the moneyed white people. For everything to be on the legal up and up, a lot of muscle and gunfire must be expended first. The picture is complicated when Po, the son of the leader of the Chinese syndicate, is killed. Han, ruled by higher principles, must intervene in the escalating tensions between the Chinese and the African Americans to find out who killed his brother.
Love is the answer to violence, but violence is the main attraction.
Where violence and sex mingle on screen, masculinity is being negotiated. Romeo Must Die willingly exploits cliches of black and Asian manhood. Asian men are disciplined, controlled, and unemotional, while Black men are boisterous and sports-loving. To be fair, in Romeo Must Die , white men are smug and nerdy, and relegated to the background, but three cliches don't make a right. Overall, this Bay Area West Side Story suggests that Asian masculinity is ascendant, but that Asian chic must be accessorized with Black fashion and rap music.