For Randall Park, stepping behind the camera to direct “Shortcomings” was a chance to fully present a complex Asian-American struggling to understand himself.

Park, 49, with acting credits like “Veep,” “Fresh off the Boat” and as Marvel’s agent Jimmy Woo, found in “Shortcomings” a bridge to his own youth.

“This is the direct connection to when I was in college,” Park said in a Zoom interview. “Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel meant so much to me. I had almost been envisioning it as a movie since the day it came out back in 2007.”

Comical yet serious, “Shortcomings” is adapted by Tomine from his comic and stars Justin H. Min as Ben who seems to be dissatisfied drifting through life.  Ben has a queer best friend in Alice (Sherry Cola) and a girlfriend  Miko (Ally Maki) who leaves him to study in New York.  Obsessed with movies and unavailable blondes, he is too often his own worst enemy, unleashing verbal tirades against those closest to him.

If Ben acts like a big jerk is he meant to be a portrait of what we now call toxic masculinity?

“I understand the tendency to put him in that category,” Park said. “But my challenge in the movie and in telling his story was to almost not see him in that way.

“I want to make sure the audience understands where this behavior is coming from. To really feel the insecurity, the vulnerability and hopefully allow the audience — no matter who you are — to identify with this character. To see that this is a very flawed, complex person who is trying his best and is throughout the course of the movie forced to grow and to change.

“For me, that was really the focus. But on paper, he’s definitely a jerk.

“Hopefully in Justin Min’s performance,” Park continued, “there is a little bit more of an understanding as to why he is the way he is.

“There were so many discussions about how to portray this character in a way that we make sure that he’s a human being. It works because we saw the movie, the tone of the movie and the character in very much the same way.

“At a certain point making this we were thinking as one. I barely needed to direct him.  I’d have a direction in my head and would look at him and he’d nod his head and he would just do it.

“Without me even telling him what I was thinking. It’s a testament to his sensitivity and his understanding of the character in the movie.”