MTV Films Present: Better Luck Tomorrow

Starring:Shirley Anderson (III), Ashley Arai, Ryan Cadiz, Karin Anna Cheung, Danielle Conner, Jeff DeJohn, Karen DiTota, Roger Fan, Christopher J. Francis, Collin Kahey, Sung Kang, Jimmy Lin, Kenji Matoba, Nanette Matoba, Smita Satiani, Parry Shen, Kristen Stinson, Jason J. Tobin, Robert Zepeda
Studio: Paramount
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Justin Lin's well-received 2002 independent feature, Better Luck Tomorrow, is a strangely appealing story of the mysterious, somehow inexorable drift of an ultra-conscientious, Southern California high school senior, Ben (Parry Shen), toward a fateful interlude with crime. Though highly focused on impressing colleges with his thoughtful balance of excellent grades, energized volunteer work (as a translator), and varsity sports (warming the bench during basketball games), something about Ben appears to be unraveling. Perhaps it is an attraction to his out-of-reach lab partner (Karin Anna Cheung), or his growing attachment to hard cash, or simply the malaise that coats his every act of self-denial. In any case, he and a brood of fellow Asian American overachievers metamorphose into the local go-to gang of black-market thievery--all while keeping up their classes. Lin brings a fresh angle to the exhausted youth-crime genre, and clarifies, with no small wisdom, the distinction between building a future and living one's destiny. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

Interesting Flick.......2007-02-21

Better Luck Tomorrow is an unusual little movie in that it is both a creation of Asian Americans and, most significantly, a film with Asian male characters who are not martial arts experts. In fact, it does not appear that any of the characters in this production are into martial arts at all.

The main characters are a group of Asian American students in Orange County who are generally academic standouts. After a fight with a white football jock who took exception to an Asian American tennis player wearing a letterman's jacket, the tennis player becomes studly in the eyes of the other students. The other Asian American male youths see adopting a violent pose as being the ticket to respect. Even so, they still must pay attention to their grades and the upcoming SAT's. Also, they are still unable to score any dates.

This latter point leads us to the true context that this movie needs to be seen in. Young Asian American males find it difficult to get dates. Many Asian American females seem to prefer white guys so much so that for every 1,000 married Asian American women, there are only 860 married Asian American males. Meanwhile, females of other racial groups seem to have little to no interest in Asian American male youth. Hence a great deal of frustration among many young Asian American males who cannot get dates.

This is a most interesting movie that hopefully presages more movies down the line pertaining to the Asian American experience that are made by Asian Americans.

A breakthrough for Asian American cinema........2007-01-14

Like many of you who have read the on-line reviews, "Better Luck Tomorrow" is a breakthrough film for Asian Americans. This is the film that helped put Justin Lin on the map, and I loved it for its respect in showing the pressures of high school life in the United States from the Asian American perspective. It is a groundbreaking film with a well-written script, and I commend it for the strong performances of its lead actors Parry Shen, Karin Anna Cheung, John Cho, and Sung Kang.

"Better Luck Tomorrow" is the first full-on Asian American feature film I have ever seen. Just imagine how I must have felt after years of watching my people portrayed as 1-dimensional stereotypical caricatures on screen for us to finally see a film that accurately portrays Asian Americans. Lin, arguably, understands the Asian American ethos better than any other Hollywood filmmaker out there. He's still a rising filmmaker in Hollywood who is making a name for himself in an extremely racist industry; I hope that in a few years, there will be more films by Lin and many other Asian American filmmakers that dispel a lot of the negative stereotypes perpetuated upon Asian Americans by mainstream American society for the past 150 years.

Most other Asian American filmmakers never got a shot at the brass ring, and I am sorry to hear that, but Lin did through his chance meeting with M.C. Hammer, who was impressed by the well-written quality of Lin's script for "Better Luck Tomorrow." This came at a time when Lin had no funding left for his independent film production company and was on the verge of shutting down. It was M.C. Hammer who helped fund Lin's film ($250,000 to produce "Better Luck Tomorrow"), and helped arrange Lin to meet with MTV executives to promote and distribute it through Paramount Pictures Studios. The only "luck" involved throughout the film's funding, production, and distribution was in its title. Lin put his heart and creative energy into this film like the way John G. Avildsen did with the original "Rocky."

I want Justin Lin to succeed in Hollywood, and his success allows more doors to be opened for Asian American filmmakers and Asian American actors who want to work in Hollywood. Lin got his foot in the gate, and he's prying it open. He has clearly shown to the American mainstream that Asian Americans can be portrayed as all-around human beings who can love, hate, think, feel like everyone else. At this point, Asian American filmmakers are still trying to find "a voice" in the Hollywood community. It's still in the "trials and tribulations" stage, and they have to take the lumps with the praises. We have to work with what we've got until that day arrives. It is good to know that we were able to establish that first breakthrough with "Better Luck Tomorrow."

As for martial arts, leave those films to Chuck Norris...

Better Luck Tomorrow.......2006-02-22

I love this movie, this is the movie I leave in the DVD player on REPEAT....haha.

Thoughtful, Disturbing, With A Fine Performance By Parry Shen.......2005-07-31

It's a hot Southern California afternoon. Two high school students, smart, from affluent families, are sitting in lawn chairs in the back yard of a home. They are Ben Manibag (Parry Shen) and his best friend, Virgil Hu (Jason Tobin). A cell phone rings. Ben checks and it's not his. Virgil looks at his phone; it's not his. The phone keeps ringing and the two look at each with increasing panic. They run to a section of the backyard and press their ears to the dirt. Then they begin frantically digging with their hands. The ringing cell phone is on the body of someone they and two other friends had recently killed and buried.

"It started with a pack of baseball cards," says Ben in flashback. "Then it snowballed. I guess it just felt good to do things I couldn't put on my college application. Besides, it was suburbia. We didn't have anything better to do. Our straight A's were our alibis, our passports to freedom. Going to a study group would get us out of the house until 4 in the morning. As long as our grades were there, we were trusted. We had it all. Well, almost." From trading in cheat sheets the four moved into whatever scams paid well and provided thrills, then into drug dealing. And they worked hard to get all A's, to list carefully considered volunteer community activities on their college applications, to have perfect scores on their SATs. They drifted further into the moral vacuum that led to the murder of another student, just as affluent and bored as they are.

I don't want to leave the impression that this is one more movie about teen-age angst. In many ways the first half of the movie is funny and sympathetic as it sets the scene with this vision of affluent suburbia, a huge, bland high school, and students who, as long as they have top grades and don't cause problems, are pretty much invisible to their teachers and parents. Parry Shen who plays Ben is the heart of the movie. He's an enormously engaging actor, not particularly handsome but with an open and thoughtful look about him. Ben is smart, knows what his future will hold (acceptance in one of the top Ivy League colleges and a major in biology), and has a crush on a cheerleader played by Karin Anna Cheung that he's too shy to do much about. As the movie progresses, however, we start to see decisions being made that get out of hand. Ben might be having second thoughts but it's unclear if the other three are. The end of the movie brings us to the present. Virgil has shot himself and lies in a coma in a hospital. The remaining three don't know if he'll live, if he'll talk about what happened, or what will happen to them. We don't either. "For the first time in my life," Ben says, "I don't know what my future will hold. I don't even know what the other guys are going to do. All I know is that there's no turning back."

This is a well-made movie. It's thoughtful and disturbing, with some very good performances. The DVD picture is just fine, with a commentary by the director and the two writers.

There's no turning back.......2005-06-25

And in this movie it goes to show you, some things that you do, can never ever be undone, and this movie shows that in Asian teens in Orange County CA making decisions that will change a life or two

Ben Manibag(Parry Shen) and his friends are just a buncha hard working student in high school, till one day a guy pisses Han(Sung Kang) off, and he shoves a gun in his face. Then Ben and Virgil(Jason J. Tobin) kick the crap out of the guy. Seems like a little thing, but when word passed around fear spread like a epidemic. Everyone in school were scared of them. For the boys fear was power, and the power was a temptation they couldn't resist. What it would lead to would be a treachurous road.

This film does a excellent job of portraying you Asian Teens who wanna become Yakuzas or Triads in a fast, fast way. That ment they became more paranoid and aggressive than when they once were. They wanna do drugs, party, anything to make them feel like they were part of a bigger better crowd. Great acting in the movie as well pays off. Man, I wish Higher Learning was this good.

Better Luck Tommorow is a great film that looks a reality in many ways. All the way to the ending it will supply you with messages and hard things to look at, like what would happen if you did something you didn't wanna do, and now you can't erase that mistake? I wouldn't know, but anyone who want's to see a good film that harldy comes around nowdays should check this out.

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