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The Asian-American teens in Better Luck Tomorrow descend into drugs, violence and more with nary a stereotype in sight.
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 24, 2003
Better Luck Tomorrow is an astonishing debut from filmmaker Justin Lin, a breakthrough on two counts that Hollywood typically bungles for profit. First, it's a film with a completely Asian-American cast, yet race doesn't matter and nobody knows kung fu. It's also a high school melodrama packed with drugs, violence, sex and rock 'n' roll, yet Lin is more concerned with dire consequences than hedonistic bliss.
The faces, the feel of Lin's film -- shot for $250,000 and looking like 10 times that amount -- make it the most fascinating new film of 2003. Better Luck Tomorrow is the work of a filmmaker wise beyond his experience with the camera and human nature. MTV Films should be commended for buying the distribution rights, after investing in corruptive projects like Jackass and The Real Cancun. Better Luck Tomorrow should be required viewing for MTV's audience, if only to provide another, darker side to the pranks and parties.
Perhaps even their parents should watch. It's no coincidence that the parents of the criminal overachievers in Lin's film are never part of the story. They probably feel they've done enough to raise their children, who make honor-roll grades and create extracurricular activities to impress Ivy League admission offices. But growing up successful in an affluent neighborhood -- the movie opens with the community gate opening like jail bars -- isn't always enough to keep teenagers out of trouble.
For juniors Ben Manibag (Parry Shen) and Virgil Hu (Jason J. Tobin), the suburbs are boredom that college will erase. They make a few bucks with department store scams while maintaining good grades, drilling for brain-bowl competitions and padding their college applications. Ben starts selling cheat sheets, creating a rogue identity for himself and his friends that blossoms into gang status after a confrontation with jocks at a party.
That reputation eventually leads to drug sales, orgies and ultimately to violence. The cell phone ringing in a shallow grave in the opening scene, four months after the rest of the story, is a dead giveaway. Most films about teen recklessness these days make crime appear glamorous for 90 minutes then effect a sudden conscience change. Lin shows the sordid appeal, as he must to be honest. But school responsibilities, hangovers and guilt get equal time. Better Luck Tomorrow is a film earning its "street cred," then using it to make scared-straight points.
The ensemble cast of unknowns -- a result of Hollywood's stereotyping of Asian faces -- is excellent. Shen never relinquishes Ben's innocence even when he's losing his virginity or his temper. Ben isn't a Scarface Jr., but a mixed-up kid playing grown-up games. The powder keg is Virgil, with Tobin's sharp features and brittle rage recalling young Robert De Niro in Mean Streets. Karin Anna Cheung is appealing as Stephanie Vandergosh, Ben's crush with a secret that, with Lin's aversion to exploitation, never becomes a big deal, therefore revealing something about these teens when it's barely mentioned.
Lin employs his fair share of cine trickery: Whizzing 360-degree pans and hyperzooms to portray the rush of cocaine and power, snapshot biographies of characters a la Run, Lola, Run and dictionary titles of words Ben memorizes daily to improve his SAT scores. The fact that words like "temerity," "quixotic" and "catharsis" are commentaries on his moral situation at the time is a clever touch. None of these flourishes seems self-indulgent. Some, like casting the ultimate clean-cut child actor, Jerry Mathers, as a dull teacher are strokes of genius.
Better Luck Tomorrow marks the arrival of a major new talent in Lin, plus his promising co-writers Ernesto Foronda and Fabian Marquez. It also positions MTV Films as an outlet for something other than the lowest-common denominator for an audience that, frankly, could spend more time learning what a denominator is. As long as Lin doesn't go Hollywood, as Doug Liman did after his equally eye-opening youth movie Go, he'll be a filmmaker to inspire and admire.
Grade: A
Director: Justin Lin
Cast: Parry Shen, Jason J. Tobin, Karin Anna Cheung, Sung Kang, Roger Fan, John Cho
Screenplay: Ernesto Foronda, Justin Lin, Fabian Marquez
Rating: R; drug abuse, profanity, violence, sexual situations
Running time: 99 min.