Better Luck Tomorrow

Made for only $250,000, Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow is a dark comedy about a group of over-achieving Asian-American high-school students in Orange County, California whose boredom and feelings about being outsiders lead to acts of petty crime and ultimately to serious violence. It is a film that challenges assumptions about Asian-Americans as asexual computer nerds, showing that they can be just as shallow and bereft of values as any white-skinned American. Better Luck Tomorrow has been hyped in the Asian community as something imperative to support. As voiced in an "open letter" from actor Parry Shen, who plays the lead role of Ben in the film, "It is not just a movie. What hinges on this release is so much larger than the film itself." While I support the fact that this film is a welcome antidote to the traditional representation of Asian-Americans on film, it must be judged on its merits rather than as a political statement.

The film is narrated by Ben Manibag (Parry Shen), a 30-year old actor playing a 16 year old student. His narration sounds as if he's rehearsing for a high school play, speaking lines like "the morning after I lost my virginity, we won the national championship" and "You never forget the sight of a dead body. But then again, I was experiencing a lot of things for the first time. I guess it's just part of growing up." Ben and his friends Han (Sung Kang), Daric (Roger Fan) and Virgil (Jason J. Tobin) have everything going for them: top grades, near-perfect SAT scores, lots of money, extra-curricular activities, social clubs, and not even a parent in sight to call on them once in a while. "Our straight A's were our alibis, our passports to freedom. As long as we got great grades, out parents didn't care where we were" Ben explains.

Shot in the MTV-style with jump cuts and rock music, the film opens with the discovery of a dead body underneath the lawn of a suburban backyard, then flashes back four months to tell its story. After Daric writes an article about Ben being the token Asian on the basketball team, he invites Ben to join with his group in their questionable adventures. They start by selling "cheat sheets" to students, then to running a credit card scam at a computer store, snorting Cocaine, selling drugs, and ultimately to violence. They seem to love their bad boy image, it's all good clean fun. "It felt good to do things that I couldn't put on my college application," explains Ben. "Besides, it was suburbia -- we had nothing better to do." Other good things to do involve a cliched romantic triangle between Ben, Stephanie Vandergosh (Karin Anna Cheung), Ben's lab partner, and Steve (John Cho), a rich kid with an attitude that does not probe any depths.

While the movie is a sincere effort by a talented new director, it did not ring true for me. Although a film with an Asian cast (the first since The Joy Luck Club) that avoids ethnic stereotyping was long overdue, I was unconvinced by the one-dimensional performances and felt that the shift in the main character's personality, even accounting for years of suppressed anger, was too abrupt to be believable. To make a coherent statement about the pressure put on Asian teens to excel would have been welcome. Instead, what Better Luck Tomorrow offers is a Quentin Tarantino wannabe, a hopped-up exercise in "cool" with extended shots of brutality and an ending that can politely be called morally dubious. No attempt is made to probe the character's thoughts or feelings either before or after they commit their acts and that funny thing called "conscience" is as far removed from the film's reality as any adult authority figures. The effect, rather than a commendable attempt to resist offering facile explanations, is to glorify the crimes and make them seem acceptable. It is reported that Lin tightened up the editing, added new scenes, and "toned down" the ending because some viewers thought it was "too cynical." I would not liked to have seen the original.

First of all, this is a film about wealthy middle-class Asian teens. Too much smoking? Too much profanity? It seems a lot of IMDB users are out of touch with suburban teen culture.

One user even complained about the "the ubiquitous melancholy feeling you'll have throughout watching the movie (which) will stick with you hours after thanks to the resolutionless ending." That's like complaining about Nietzche because he's depressing.

That said, this is an EXTREMELY good movie. Anyone trying to understand today's affluent youth culture would do well to start here. It is true that the leads in this movie did not have to be Asians, but anyone who thinks this is a valid complaint should go visit a SoCal high school and check out the student population. Guess what you'll find? And while you're at it, could you please name a drama starring Asian people? Joy Luck Club? Okay, what else? Exactly.

I think it's also important to point out that MTV had no part in the creation of this movie. All they did was see the movie AFTER it had been made and agree to distribute it. Makes you wonder how valid most of these comments are when the writers don't even bother to read about the movie to understand it better.

Its all well and good that this movie is attempting to break down stereotypes (perhaps by replacing them with other stereotypes), but that doesn't necessarily make for a good movie.

You could have changed a few names, used some different actors, and this would be an ordinary, bland movie about "rich youth gone bad". It has been done better.

I liked the characters, but the story just wasn't developed enough and they never really get into motivations. They tried to throw in a few lines of "what is the meaning of life", but that does *not* connect various scenes into an actual telling story and it does *not* a plot make.

Too many loose ends are left at the end of this movie. If they want to pretend they "meant to do that", well, I just don't believe 'em. You never really get into most of the characters deep enough to explain why you had to watch them run around for the previous 2 hours.

"Amongst Friends" was the same movie done several years back, but it was just better written.

"Better Luck Tomorrow" has attracted much IMDb comment despite being shown in few theaters and then over a short period. Now available in DVD it will clearly garner a slowly widening audience by word of mouth. And it should.

This idie film operates on several levels. The story of a loose cohort of high school high achievers, mostly Asian-American, they are simultaneously self-challenged to make it to the Ivies while at the same time drifting in an affluent bubble of moral emptiness. They volunteer for public service project for points to strengthen their "apps" without any real commitment to the values of service.

Ben is the central character, a youth of untapped ability and boundless promise who seems unable to find any real meaning in his academic goals. The others are a cross-section of teenagers running from the daring to the reckless to the pathological.

He slowly falls hard for Stephanie, a beautiful classmate (actually almost thirty when the film was made but you'd never know it). She has a manipulative, rich boyfriend, "Stevo," and her relationship with him is both resistant and dependent. Girls in this film are ancillary arm candy for the males. Stephanie, who has issues of her own, she refers to her obligatory therapist, knows she's dominated by Steve but resisting submissiveness is very hard. Asian-American or not, Stephanie is a very recognizable teenager. Not too different a story from many high school buddy films, that part.

What is different and distinctive about this story are two factors. The first is that Ben and his friends start running scams at stores to get money for stolen merchandise returned for refunds and then graduate to both selling and using drugs. Their criminal activities become both more sinister and essentially aimless as challenge predominates over possible gain. To describe more would be to give away a genuinely original story line.

The second factor that separates "Better Luck Tomorrow" from the usual run-of-the-mill teen angst flick is the total absence of adult authority figures- parents, teachers (one biology teacher has a brief, colorless classroom presence), police (a sole cop is shown in a couple of seconds in a hallway, almost an opaque shadow). These kids have wheels and money but there's no evidence of their being accountable to anybody. Their ambitions and schemes are their sole interior reality.

Many IMDb comments are from Asian-Americans who view the characters as reflecting their own background. There is a brutal fight scene between the Asian boys and white kids at an unsupervised (of course) booze bash but much of the behavior that escalates into disaster isn't limited to any racial or ethnic group. I'm not even sure I feel comfortable dismissing the behavior as just another example of SoCal teen life.

The acting here, by a cast unknown (check IMDb for their names) is outstanding as is the direction and cinematography that pictures a slightly bleached suburb mirroring the superficiality of the central male characters. Anomie rather than evil is the malevolent controlling force for most of the boys.

A very disturbing film-one that does and should arouse discussion.

8/10.

I liked this movie. It definitely was thought and emotionally provoking and the film stays with you after you've left the the theater, especially certain scenes and I thought it was pretty funny at times. But there were certain things that I wished the film addressed, explored or handled better, such as pace, more seamless editing, more character development on Stephanie and Steve and carrying out the intentions of why it was essential the cast be all Asian American. ALL the actors gave stand out performances. The film itself, not so impressive. The film does shake up the stereotypes of AAs but I really wanted it to fully break em. I felt like I was expecting it to do that much, considering the marketing and publicity. It's definitely refreshing and I'd see it again. But it still needs some work. I appreciate it more for its intentions and vehicle for opportunity than the film itself. I'm anxious to see what Justin Lin can do with a bigger budget and support. And even more anxious to see what the actors will get for their next project because of this film.