That's not so clear in Better Luck Tomorrow. Lin is highly conscious of having made the first Asian-American film to be picked up for distribution, and he talks about the four boys and their criminal life as if he were documenting a social phenomenon, for instance in this 27 December 2001 interview with AsianAmericanFilm.com:
"Better Luck Tomorrow" is really exploring the whole youth culture of today, specifically Asian American, but also just the general mentality of teenagers today. I mean, I work with teenagers, I grew up in the 80s, and already it's very different, the mentality. You go to suburbia, you look at upper middle class kids, and through the media they've literally adopted urban gangsta mentality…. Specifically it's very interesting when you put it within the context of Asian American males. I mean, what's more empowering than being a gangsta with a gun? I don't think I'm doing justice to it, but that was the theme that I really wanted to explore, about the fact that [teens] don't have the patience to search for things and so [they] start adopting things and then potentially this identity could swallow [them]....What we see, however, doesn't feel real. It's highly detailed, and in that sense technically realistic, as are the performances (by an accomplished set of actors, including Karin Anna Cheung as the girl Ben likes, and John Cho, who has a wonderful face for the movies, full of fascinating, inchoate cross-currents, as Ben's rival), but I still felt that Lin was working something out in his head rather than in any California town.
Where, for instance, are the parents? In one scene Virgil gets upset thinking about what his dad will do when he hears about his son's behavior, but we never see the father or hear what happened. Likewise, the academic decathlon team never meets with a faculty member and attends the championship meet in Las Vegas without a chaperone. Lin may talk about the pressures on teens in the real world, but Better Luck Tomorrow is a romance that, I'm guessing, isn't fully separable from his feelings about himself. (In this 2 April 2003 interview with Asia Source he says of himself in high school: "I was the rebellious kid. I hated being labeled. I was this short Asian guy on the varsity team and eagle scouts. It's funny because it was good I did all these activities but I did them for the wrong reasons. I just wanted to prove people wrong.") It may sound like I'm knocking the movie, but this half-emerged quality is actually what makes it interesting and coherent, and enables it to avoid the squishiness of an autobiographical coming-of-age film.
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Article comments
1 - don
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
2 - don
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
3 - Mac Diva
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.
4 - Eric Olsen
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.
5 - Alan Dale
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.
6 - jeff
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.
7 - saska
four boys are bad becase they shoot pepole they hate me virgil is a clown his big ass cosin han he is a touge man and campus daric is so strong to shoot parry shen shawn he do the hunted swamp toar one frend of my is a good person he is nice to me the boys are mean to him and his girlfriend spefanie vander goch is cheerleader thats all you have to obout them shawn likes the preety cheerleader shawn he doesing like me or nothing and they come to daric house daric has a girlfriend is casie and virgil to and han shawn brian they beat up him he make fun of them they fight wth him
8 - saska
rebecca and sam holly juno beth sarah
9 - saska
virgil hu is a clown his cosin han they and steve daric shawn they come to daric house partie throwing stuff chucky and tiffany and wonda betty and rech sam they are my friends because the boys hate them brian is not the one who fell them they are so bad brian his friends are like me but shawn is my nobclahan daric shawn virgil
10 - saska
chucky tiffany wonda are my cosins and sam rech betty holloweentown greshin michael jackson steve daric virgil han shawn misty ms. jim permatteo and her hospan jenna ben marybeth shawn marcus shapiro juno rebecca casie sarah holly beth sam are dead
11 - saska
chucky tiffany brian shawn wonda sam rebecca sam holly juno sarah beth jenna marcus shapiro redman steve daric virgil han casie chris tina kenny sue billy alex clear george tod terry carter billy jennifer tilly wendy kevin jason ashley and ashlyn frankie lan erin lewis stan joan
12 - saska
virgil hu daric loo han lue shawn brian steve misty jenna marybeth ben marcus shapiro jennifer tilly redman stan britney spears chucky tiffany wonda joan sam rebecca sam sarah holly beth juno caie chris helen tina kenny tommy sue howard otis bessy abby pic pig
13 - saska
steve brian shawn daric han virgil casie better luck tomorrow flim
14 - saska
better luck tomorrow
15 - rebecca
better luck tomorrow sarah juno beth holly sam rebecca saska casie kevin wendy jason carrie lewis frankie ashley and ashlyn lan erin clear alex carter billy terry george tod ms. lewton shawn wonda daric virgil han chucky tiffany sam rech betty redman jennifer tilly stan joan chris tina kenny helen roy sue billy jack helga frabitzio tommy ryan rose ruth molly cal lovejoy andy kyle carrie white
16 - sam
rebecca juno holly beth sam sarah han wonda tiffany chucky virgil jack helga daric shawn steve brian wonda sam rech betty cal ruth lovejoy erin wendy kevin lan jason carrie ashley amnd ashlyn frankie jennifer tilly stan lewis steve brian betty rech jack tommy ross chris tina billy heather pina redman han virgil shawn daric britney spears britney spears britney spears britney spears chucky tiffany stan tiffany samantha shawn shawn shawn casie jennifer tilly britney spears britney spears daric han virgil shawn sean kolbey casie heather pina jack ross helga tommy ryan brian shawn misty jenna marybeth ben marcus shapiro britney spears britney spears britney spears britney spears britney spears britney spears britney spears steve brian
17 - britney spears
daric han shawn virgil they kill everybody and steve cho britney spears britney spears steve steve steve hold me tell me that you love me baby casie casie casie sarah beth rebecca sam juno holly britney spears chucky tiffany wonda sam juno sarah beth stan redman joan rebecca sam holly michael jackson michael myer halloweentown sean koibey casie daric virgil shawn han shawn shawn shawn shawn shawn shawn
18 - britney spears
kolbey tommy ryan chucky and tiffany wonda sam caie jennifer tilly stan redman joan and daric virgil steve han shawn casie kenny chris tina billy sue helen roy britney spears britney spears sam rebecca juno holly sarah beth michael jackson michael myer fuvia sam does know chucky chucky tiffany sarah shawn misty jenna marcus marybeth ben sam is mean to me shawn is mad at me