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Better luck next time
Writer-director Justin Lin may someday have a better film in him than "Better Luck Tomorrow," a trashing of the Asian-American model-minority stereotype that devolves into depraved violence as it runs out of dramatic inspiration.
By RANDI MILLER
Offoffoff.com
Better Luck Tomorrow, the directorial debut of Justin
Lin, is a much-hyped, contentious movie with a great
idea, complex and interesting characters, and a script
in need of another few months of revamping. It is,
quite frankly, a poor man's "Trainspotting" that
explores dark, unsettling themes inadequately and
irresponsibly.
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| BETTER LUCK TOMORROW |
Directed by: Justin Lin.
Written by: Ernesto Foronda, Justin Lin, Fabian Marquez.
Cast: Parry Shen, Jason J. Tobin, Sung Kang, Roger Fan, John Cho, Karin Anna Cheung, Jerry Mathers, Aaron Takahashi, Beverly Sotelo.
Related links:
Official site
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Shown through the eyes of narrator and protagonist Ben
Manibag (Parry Shen), the movie traces the lives of a
loosely knit group of privileged Asian-American high
school honor students in present-day Orange County.
The movie begins with the shocking discovery of a dead
body underneath the perfectly manicured lawn of a
suburban backyard and then backtracks to several
months prior to the discovery.
The film's action is centered around four
overachieving, privileged students — Ben, along with
Virgil Hu (Jason J. Tobin), Han (Sung Kang), and Daric
(Roger Fan). They are shown slowly evolving into a
tough, gun-wielding gang throughout the several months
prior to the body's discovery. While not selling exam
cheat sheets, dealing drugs, and stealing computers,
they manage to maintain their statuses as the school's
academic leaders.
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The four quickly become enraptured with their crimes,
intoxicated with getting away with the forbidden and
with successfully navigating between and commandeering
two worlds. To reinforce this point, they are shown
strutting down the halls of the school like something
out of "Reservoir Dogs," sipping beer at parties with
the wind blowing through their hair, snorting cocaine,
having sex with prostitutes, and smoking cigarettes
with their faces scrunched up like Clint Eastwood in a
western movie. The background music pumps loudly, the
cinematic style is fast and edgy, and Ben's
voiceovers explaining his gang's popularity lure you
into the excitement. The one adult present in the
film is a science teacher who lectures on amoebas. He
is played by "the Beaver" Jerry Mathers and, as such, is a complete
joke. As Ben claims, "Our straight A's were our
passport to freedom. As long as we got great grades,
out parents didn't care where we were."
Along with their double lives, the movie shows Ben's
fledgling quasi-romance with his cheerleader lab
partner Stephanie Vandergosh, played by newcomer Karin
Anna Cheung. Stephanie's morality is never fully
defined — you almost expect her to be the sweet, moral
voice of the film pulling Ben back from his descent
into criminality. But in a minor shoplifting scene,
she is shown to be vaguely on the same ethical plane
as that of Ben and his gang. Stephanie's adulterous,
megalomaniacal boyfriend Steve (John Cho) complicates
the romance by constantly reminding and rubbing Ben's
face in his conquest of Stephanie — he asks Ben to
take Stephanie to the school dance because it's just
not "his thing," and sarcastically cries to Ben that
Stephanie is "the one" and will take Ben's advice to
treat her better.
The problem with the film is that the
characters go from a protracted and sometimes boring
period of increasingly serious experimentation in
criminality to sudden sociopathy in the blink of an
eye, leaving the film imbalanced and the ending
artificial. There are long voiced-over explanations of
their crimes, slow steady shots of brutality,
"GoodFellas"-esque enjoyment of drugs, sex, and money.
It's actually very slow at some points — I started
wondering what I was going to have for dinner during
some of the drug scenes.
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And then the movie abruptly ends with a heinous
homicide for which the characters act remorseless, as
if drug dealing and theft are the gateway crimes into
murder. Don't get me wrong — it's one thing to indulge
in petty criminal behavior as a teenager; sex, drugs,
and theft may be par for the contemporary adolescent
course. But the characters are too rich
and complex for Lin not to show some semblance of
their internal struggles, tensions, or psychological
fallouts from the sudden and extreme escalation in
brutality of their crimes. There are hints of it —
facial gestures, one grandiose act that's not fully
explored — but they seem artificial and tacked on. In
the end, I was left feeling upset by how cool the
characters are presented and unsettled at how socially
irresponsible the filmmaker is in glorifying teenage
homicide.
What's more interesting than any of the script's
flaws, though, is how much debate this movie is
sparking over its negative representation of Asian-Americans and its indifferent, unapologetic depiction
of crime.
Some question why Lin chose to present Asian-Americans
in such an unflattering light. Since Asian-Americans
are so underrepresented in entertainment media, so the
argument goes, why then choose to showcase a group of
Asian-Americans as amoral criminals? Others, though,
take umbrage at the implication that minority
filmmakers should be responsible for the filmic
representation of their ethnicities — regardless of
whether the representations are positive or negative.
In fact, critic Roger Ebert defended
the film passionately on precisely this issue at the
Sundance Film Festival. His defense engendered such
interest and buzz that the film was picked up as an
acquisition by MTV Films and distributed by Paramount
Pictures.
Regarding the film's glorification of crime, some,
including me, find it to be disturbing apart from of the
characters' ethnicity. Others herald the
film as the triumphant debut of a talented filmmaker
whose kinetic style and unique perspective are similar
to that of Quentin Tarantino.
I suggest not bothering to see "Better Luck Tomorrow."
It is worthwhile to see inasmuch as it's always fun to
be able to take part in a current debate and support
new intelligent directors and actors. But read a few
articles and see Lin's next movie instead. The story
itself needs some more work, it's upsetting and boring
at times to watch, and, more importantly, why become
complicit in the glorified depiction of teenage
homicide by paying money to see it?
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APRIL 11, 2003
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
Reader comments on Better Luck Tomorrow:
free me from Niki Yan, Apr 30, 2003
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