Cast: Parry Shen, Jason J. Tobin, Sung Kang, Roger Fan, John Cho, Karin Anna Cheung
Director: Justin Lin
Producers: Justin Lin, Julie Asato, Ernesto Foronda
Screenplay: Justin Lin, Ernesto Foronda, Fabian Marquez
Cinematography: Patrice Lucien Cochet
Music: Michael Gonzales
U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Better Luck Tomorrow is a rarity indeed – a movie about high school teenagers that does not fall into one of the two most popular categories: the formula romantic comedy or the angst-filled soap opera. Instead, Justin Lin's sophomore feature (he made the 1997 movie Shopping for Fangs) keeps things real. Lin obviously understands what it means to be a high school outsider; he develops his characters as genuine individuals with legitimate personalities, abandoning caricatures along the way.
It's not an easy thing to be smart in high school. The payoff for intelligence comes later in life, but, during those hormone-charged teen years, popularity is a far more seductive and desirable trait. Anyone with a legitimate shot at scoring a 1600 on the SATs finds himself or herself ostracized by classmates and bored by classes. The solution to the former problem is to hang out with others possessing a similarly high IQ. The answer to the latter quandary is not as simple. Boredom can be a terrible thing, because the attempt to overcome it can lead to increasingly reckless (and, in this case, amoral) behavior.
Ben (Parry Shen) is an ideal student whose sole goal in life is to get into the best college possible. His grades are all A's, his SATs are nearly perfect (to correct the "nearly" portion, he studies one new word each day), and his after school life is packed with extra-curricular activities. He's even on the basketball team, albeit in the role of the "token Asian bench-warmer." Ben lacks a girlfriend, but that doesn't mean there isn't someone he wants to fill that role. She is Stephanie Vandergosh (Karin Anna Cheung), his biology lab partner. Ben is desperately infatuated with her, but he lacks the courage to tell her, and she is involved with a bad-boy named Steve (John Cho), who is, of course, cheating on her.
In the company of his friends Virgil (Jason J. Tobin), Han (Sung Kang), and Daric (Roger Fan), Ben is a member of the school's most notorious clique. They sell cheat-sheets for exams, steal computer parts from stores, and are willing to participate in almost every imaginable scam, as long as it's profitable. Eventually, they graduate from petty crimes to drug dealing. That's when the first guns appear, and things start to get dangerous. Ultimately, while the money is a factor, greed is not the real reason Ben and his friends engage in these activities. They do it because it adds spice to an otherwise routine existence. Steve, who is not a member of the clique, talks about the need for a "wake up call," and it's clear that Ben understands exactly what he's referring to.
Certain aspects of Better Luck Tomorrow's plot might lead a casual viewer to believe it's going to be similar to a lot of teen movies that have slipped through multiplexes in the past few years. It isn't. Lin's approach is honest and fresh. He doesn't judge his characters, although their actions invite condemnation. In fact, many viewers will find themselves sympathizing with Ben. And, while there is closure of a sort, the movie remains largely open-ended, with numerous questions dangling unanswered.
Better Luck Tomorrow is noteworthy in that it is the first motion picture of this sort to deal with Asian American teenagers. The Orange County high school has a diverse population, but Lin focuses exclusively on the Asian-descended students. One of the strongest points that this approach drives home is the universality of the many problems and issues. Most of the obstacles that Ben faces (boredom, peer pressure, drug addiction, sexual frustration) are unrelated to his race and upbringing. They're the kinds of things that will resonate as strongly with white, black, and Hispanic viewers as with Asian American audience members. This makes Better Luck Tomorrow inclusive, rather than exclusive.
There isn't a weak link in Lin's cast of peerless young actors, none of whom have lengthy resumes. Parry Shen does a superlative job of developing Ben into a believable "normal" guy – the kind of boy a girl would love to bring home to meet her parents and who has probably never been sent to the principal's office. Jason J. Tobin presents Virgil as an off-center goofball who always seems to have ingested too much caffeine. Sung Kang's Han is a dour, uncommunicative individual. Roger Fan radiates charisma – his Daric could charm the wings off a butterfly, and he knows it. John Cho develops Steve into something much more substantial than the stereotypical "rival boyfriend." And newcomer Karin Anna Cheung plays the type of girl one can easily believe Ben would fall for.
Typically, movies aimed at teenage audiences have little concern for things like intelligent scripts, credible characters, and meaningful dialogue. Better Luck Tomorrow contains all three, making it a hugely rewarding experience for anyone who goes to see it. MTV (which bought this movie out of Sundance) believes the target audience to be high school and college students. I would argue that it's anyone in search of a well-made, thought-provoking motion picture.
© 2003 James Berardinelli