AllMovie

Alex Yang's debut feature, The Trigger is a story of a man trying to help a teenager who is headed down the wrong path. Gui (Ni Ming Ran) is a mafia hitman who has a crisis of conscious. His sense of right and wrong, as well as a fear of what may happen to his wife and kids, convinces him to turn himself into the police. Hong (Cai Xinghong) is a troubled teenager who ends up going to jail for a crime committed by his mother. While in prison together, Gui takes Hong under his wing. After they are released, Gui hires Hong as a bartender. Hong is tempted to begin a life of crime by being so close to Gui's old cronies, and Gui himself considers a relapse into his self-destructive ways when he learns what happened to his family. The Trigger was screened at the Vancouver Film Festival.