Introduction:

South Boston teenager Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano) awakens from a dream of a battle between the Monkey King Sun Wukong (Jet Li) and heavenly soldiers amongst clouds. He is then shown to be a fan of kung fu movies; posters cover the walls of his room, and his television displays the 1970s Japanese TV series Monkey. After getting dressed, he visits a pawn shop in downtown Boston’s Chinatown to buy wuxia DVDs. There, Jason converses with Hop (a prosthetics-laden Jackie Chan), the shop’s elderly owner, and, while exploring the shop, is drawn to a golden staff, which Hop tells him is to be delivered to its rightful owner.

On his way home, Jason is attacked by local bully Lupo (Morgan Benoit) and cronies, who force him to return to the pawn shop at night so that Hop will open the door, allowing the bullies to steal his money. Hop tries to attack the thieves with the staff, but is shot by Lupo. Hop, wounded, tells Jason that Jason must now deliver the staff to its rightful owner. Jason takes the staff and runs from the thieves. On top of a building, he is surrounded by the bullies, as Lupo fears that Jason will expose the shooting to the police and intends to kill him to ensure his silence. Before Lupo can shoot, Jason is pulled off the roof by the staff and falls backwards onto the asphalt.