Better Luck Tomorrow
(Paramount Region One DVD)
(2003)
review by Head Cheeze

Stereotypes are a funny thing. It's the human equivolent of the tags you see in record store bins; rock, pop, country, soul. Applied to music, these tags give one a generalised assessment of what to expect from a particular artist, eschewing any particular nuances that make that individual different from his peers. When applied to humans, more succinctly, race, the stereotype serves as a catch all for others to quickly judge a person and move on, without actually checking beneath the hood to see what propels them. The funny, poignant, and somewhat shocking Better Luck Tomorrow is a film that takes one such stereotype; the overachieving asian teen, and tips it firmly on it's ear.

Ben (Shen) is a high school junior heading toward early admissions to the college of his choice. His entire life has, to this point, served as a resume', highlighting his academic prowess, extra-curricular activities, and job history, all with an eye toward landing the school of his choice. His friends Virgil (Tobin), Han (Kang), and Daric (Fan) are all equally intelligent, upwardly mobile types whose lives revolve around the same concerns Ben has. Ultimately, they all want out of Orange County at any cost, and, for them, the way to get out is by being better than anyone else. It's a case of stereotype as self-fullfilling prophecy.

However, these asian overachievers are also American teenagers, and, as is the case with the majority of teenagers, boredom, isolation, and raging hormones begin to bubble under the perfect facades they've created for themselves. The quartet begin to dabble in credit card fraud for extra cash, which leads to bigger "scams", drug dealing, and, ultimately, a sense of power that their scrutinized lives have lacked up until now. By night, the group begins to tote weapons, and develop a reputation as the high school equivolent to the Asian mafia, commanding both fear and respect, while maintaining their perfect GPA's, attending ecological fund-raisers, and winning academic decathalons by day. The Jekyl and Hyde lifestyle begins to wear on Ben, whose only real ambition beyond admission to the best school is admission into the life of Stephanie (Cheung), his lab partner whose wealthy boyfriend, Steve (Cho) treats like rubbish as he parades about town with white trophy girls. Steve enlists Ben to watch after Stephanie at school functions, and accompany her to dances and formals while he makes time with his other conquests. As Ben falls deeper in love with Stephanie, he "retires" from the gangster lifestyle that has taken it's toll on him, until Steve comes back with an obscenely profitable offer for the group to commit one more scam: a home invasion against his own family.

Better Luck Tomorrow is the first film from young director Justin Lin, and he shows great promise. His visual style combines elements of everyone from Scorcese to Tarantino to Wei, and I look forward to seeing this young filmmaker's future projects. That being said, Better Luck Tomorrow feels a bit rushed, and while it offers insight into the world of the overachieving Asian-American teen, the film veers off the road of believability when these affable teens suddenly become bloodthirsty gangsters with seemingly no other explanation than their own boredom. We are supposed to believe that this transformation happens over four scant months, but it feels artificial and, as each character falls into his own personal abyss, one can't help to wonder how it got so far, and so bad, in such a limited amount of time. As the film entered it's third act, characters I'd become intimately involved with began to disintegrate into stereotypes of the cinematic nature, basically rendering Lin's point a moot one, and the film's coda offered nothing by way of catharsis for anyone, even though we're treated to a superimposed dictionary breakdown of word, apparently placed their because the film offers none of it's own.

The performances in Better Luck Tomorrow range from simply good to fantastic, and I really hope to see more of Perry Shen, whose hang-dog expression and subtle delivery made the film for me. Equally impressive was Jason J. Tobin, whose manic and conflicted Virgil provided both comic relief, as well as many of the film's most dramatic moments. His blank faced intensity as his character got further entrenched in the drama of his double-life is haunting and effective.

The DVD from Paramount features a very nice widescreen anamorphic transfer, as well as a crystal clear 5.1 Dolby track that enhances the film's fantastic soundtrack wonderfully(it's an MTV co-production, and anyone whose seen Rules of Attraction or Orange County can attest to the fact that when these guys are on board, a film's soundtrack gets the Midas touch). The DVD features a commentary track with Lin and co-writers Ernesto M. Foronda and Fabian Marquez as the sole extra, which is surprising seeing as how this is a film that didn't recieve much by way of a wide theatrical release and really seems tailor made for the home viewing audience, but, alas, this is all we get.

Better Luck Tomorrow starts as a very interesting, funny, and offbeat examination of stereotypes and the pressures of academic excellence in a culture in which this is the expected norm, but disintegrates into criminal melodrama with such an abrupt nature that it seems forced and artificial. Still, the film is helmed by a burgeoning talent who keeps things visually interesting enough to maintain viewer interest through it's conclusion, even if the story loses us long before.