The collapse of this project inspired Jun to make his next film on a much lower budget. The product of this was the film Steel City. John Heard had remained interested in working with Jun and his involvement with the new film led to interest from Your Half Pictures. This marked the end of two years of searching for a production company as the Los Angeles firm agreed to produce the film. The idea of family breakdown interested Jun and a mix of this idea with midwestern economic downturn formed the basis for Steel City. In addition to Heard, the film starred America Ferrera and Raymond J. Barry, who later received a nomination for best supporting actor from the Spirit Awards for his role in the film.
The film received a nomination for the grand prize jury award following its screening at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006. The film was generally received well by critics: reviews from both The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly praised the strength in depth of the supporting characters. However both also acknowledged the debut film's flaws. The New York Times notes flaws in the script: "Heard has to utter the wince-inducing line "I wanted to be a better dad," but mostly Mr. Jun's script is sharp". Entertainment Weekly summarised that "Steel City could have used more rhythmic drive, but if Jun keeps weaving together characters this compelling, he could be a major film artist in the making". Time Out also pointed out that the film had the teething problems of a first effort but otherwise praised the script and the casts performance.
Read more about this topic: Brian Jun