Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow: Model Minority
Published May 14, 2003
People don't always know where their own talent lies. Again, in the Asia Source interview Lin states, "I wanted to explore [teen violence] even though I don't have the answer, but bringing up the questions might bring us closer to it." We don't have to take this at face value. He may flutter like a sparrow for journalists but the movie's good to the extent he swoops like a hawk. Lin's direction of Better Luck Tomorrow doesn't ask questions at all; it responds to a widespread perception in a personal way. Which is even better. Maybe that's why there's no resolution to Ben's story. Lin's fantasy isn't over; he's only at the beginning of his career.
You can find this review and a lot besides at The Kitchen Cabinet.
Alan Dale is author of Comedy Is a Man in Trouble: Slapstick in American Movies.
- Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow: Model Minority
- Published: May 14, 2003
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- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Drama
- Writer: Alan Dale
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Justin Lin fails to say in all his PR work for the film that he stole the idea from a newspaer clipping in the Orange county Regsiter nearly a decade ago. The death scene of steve is an mirrow image of what happened to a Sunnyvale highschool student (Tay). Orginal? no...Mr. Lin , confess you have no talent and that you used that artical is am exact blueprint for your film. At least cut the dead kids family a royality check
Actually, the notion Asian-Americans are never involved in crime is misleading. Often the crime is off the beaten track, focusing on robbing, prostituting or selling drugs to people in the same ethnic group. Police departments have trouble penetrating such crime rings. We tend to hear about them when something goes wrong, such as robberies when multiple victims are killed.
There are Asian gangs pretty much everywhere there is a high concentration of Asians. I knew a an L.A. cop whose partner was killed by a Vietnamese gang member.
Thanks, all, for writing.
Originality just isn't that important aesthetically, especially when it comes to story elements, and has very little connection with "talent." Shakespeare isn't "original" in that sense.
What's interesting to me about the movie is that the boys who become criminals aren't from the social stratum of Asian-American society that populates the gangs. They're middle-class guys who could easily get in to Ivy League schools. Through these characters Justin Lin is fantasizing about being a gangsta. That's what gives the movie its pull.
he didn't make up the plot for the movie, that shit happend in orange county in like 1992 except the guy virgil was based on was mexican, the guys went to sunny hills high school, I knew the mom of the guy ben is based on, she was my dads friend.
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Justin Lin fails to say in all his PR work for the film that he stole the idea from a newspaer clipping in the Orange county Regsiter nearly a decade ago. The death scene of steve is an mirrow image of what happened to a Sunnyvale highschool student (Tay). Orginal? no...Mr. Lin , confess you have no talent and that you used that artical is am exact blueprint for your film. At least cut the dead kinds family a royality check