Better Luck Tomorrow is a little-seen gem that if not for
its presence, the Fast and Furious franchise would look very different if it
would even exist. The film is the sophomore feature of director Justin Lin who
would go on to direct 5 of the Fast and Furious movies, including Fast Five,
considered by many as the franchise's crown jewel. The moment the series sheds
the skin of whatever it was for 4 entries and becomes the corona-swigging,
family heist square dance we now know it to be. Without Better Luck Tomorrow we
may not have got Dwayne Johnson lumbering after sports cars inexplicably
speeding away with a huge metal safe. Without Better Luck Tomorrow, we do
not get Han, the much-loved rouge who makes his fast debut in the third film
but makes his first appearance in this lesser-known criminal coming-of-age
caper. If Justin Lin ever returns to the Fast Franchise, every fan and his dog
will inform you about it. If Better Luck Tomorrow ever gets better streaming
rights or a physical release, I’ll probably be letting those same fans see that
they should try this.
The late 90s/Early 00s were a boon time for a certain kind
of teen movie. Films were aimed at the adolescent market, because that’s where
the money was, but with more bite and sexiness than what had passed before
them. Granted Tom Cruise was cavorting in his undies and getting off with
hookers in Risky Business (1983). In the 1980s the slasher movie had fun
connecting sex and death, while John Hughes at this point had teen teenage
angst all sewn up, defining much of a generation with his influential coming-of-age
movies. African American coming-of-age drams gave things a shot in the arm in
the early 90s, but it was the likes of Scream (1996) and American Pie (1999)
which re-defined things for Hollywood. There was a smattering of
post-modernism, irony and spiciness sprinkled on a batch of teen flicks. A
place where 20-year-old actors would get cast as high school seniors in films
with “grown-up” plots. The style was notable, and for those in Tinseltown, the
money was good.
Of course, save for the odd sprinkling of casting, these
teen movies were overwhelmingly white. Two decades on, the cinematic melting
pot has got a little better, but the default to whiteness still feels like a
thing to many. A glance at the teenage titles coming out in the early 00s is a
strong reminder of such a perspective. It’s this which makes Better Luck
Tomorrow feel so striking. Not only shifting the focus of the coming-of-age
movie to a group of Asian Americans but complicating the image of the reserved,
nerdy Asian American stereotype. Bringing forth a murky, morally ambiguous tale
centred around a group of academically sound, yet bored High Schoolers who swap
A grades for cheat sheets and scams. The clique soon delves into the world of
petty theft and drugs before things take a murderous turn with the introduction
of a rich yet smugly disaffected interloper.
The subversiveness in Justin Lin’s take on American suburbia
draws from a background which felt remarkably conventional for the time. Much
like Kevin Smith and Robert Rodriguiz, Lin maxed out his credit cards and spent
his life savings to fund the film. Cast and crew quit their jobs to go all in
on the project, while MC Hammer became an unlikely benefactor towards the film.
Funding $10,000 for the production after meeting Lin while the director worked
at the Japanese American National Museum. However, Lin’s devotion to
representation led to the director turning down funding from investors who
wanted the film to be made with Macaulay Culkin in mind as the lead.
Such dedication to his vision not only made Lin and his cast
stars in Hollywood, but it also created a small cultural milestone in Asian
American representation in Western cinema. Lin's crime film is full of the
visual tics that mark the look of coming-of-age/teen cinema at the time. The
fact that MTV films have a hand in the production is obvious. The introductory
quick cutting of still images, the time-lapses, the blown-out highlights and
camera shots through fish tanks and on shopping trolleys are a clear hallmark.
Yet the Asian representation gives everything an elemental shift. The gang
don’t imitate much from Far Eastern Cinema, although the film alludes to John
Woo’s 1986 Hong Kong feature. The cultural touchstones come from not only the
whiter suburban features of the time but also the likes of Goodfellas (1990).
This may be known unconsciously to the characters but it’s conscious to the
audience. The film’s cold open is lifted directly from Scorsese’s mob epic.
The same can be said of the character of Virgil (Jason
Tobin), who spends much of the film channelling the same combustible energy as
Joe Pesci’s Tommy DeVito. Both characters meet similarly tragic circumstances
only separated by ages, yet there’s an unexpected yet universal nature to the
two counterparts. But Tobin’s Virgil stands out. He is the prototypical,
primitive ego of the story. Much like Pesci’s volatile Tommy is so many ways
often only separated by age, however, his race discombobulates things. His
braindead horniness and overcompensating anger seem so “normal” if this were
focused on the typical bored, white affluent teens usually seen in such a
story. The fact that he’s Asian American raises an eyebrow and tilts the head.
It’s the point. Assimilation is complete.
Roger Ebert, who championed the movie at Sundance, at the
time noted that Better Luck Tomorrow is a “disturbing and skilfully told
parable about growing up in today’s America.” And this writer fully agrees with
him. Better Luck Tomorrow is fascinating in showing how much of a façade racial
stereotypes are when so deeply entrenched within the more amoral aspects of
American culture. Virgil and Tommy are the same. They’ve both been swallowed
and chewed up by the dream of the United States only to succumb to the drama.
The same goes for O-dog in Menace 2 Society (1993) which appears a decade
before Justin Lin’s feature. So often stereotypes are used as handy scapegoats
to inhibit ethnicity. They help placate people into the idea that groups of
people can’t or won’t do certain things as it’s “not in their DNA”. Better Luck
Tomorrow negates such thinking, having its casual amorality, born from
capitalism and boredom, breed like the Covid virus. Many people won’t believe
it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a thing.
Justin Lin is so assured with his storytelling, and it shows
here. Better Luck Tomorrow swings from high school hi-jinks into murky darkness
effortlessly. Moments of poignancy flip to humour or seriousness within scenes
without the sense of whiplash that could have easily occurred. Midway through
the movie, Ben, played affably by Perry Sheen, loses his virginity to a sex
worker on a trip to Vegas. At first, the scene teeters from sleazy to pathos,
before switching back to sordidness and dark humour and finishing with a tense
violent confrontation. Never once does the pitch feel out of whack or jarring.
Another moment features the four gang members driving home after an allocation
with school colleagues at a house party. In one of the film's most arresting and
heartbreaking scenes, the camera fixates on Virgil in a close-up. A high school
senior torn between both agony and ecstasy upon him and his friends beating on
some prejudiced white kids who have been hounding them for the first half of
the movie. Making bigoted remarks insinuating what was mentioned in my earlier
paragraph. Virgil smiles and grimaces through tears in a moment of retribution
and realisation. Angry at the remarks, but joyful at not only getting the jump
on the perpetrators but also being noticed. It’s a testament to Lin’s
direction, as well as Tobin’s performance in how it doesn’t signpost to the
viewer what to feel.
It's amusing to watch Lin become one of the figureheads of
the Fast and Furious saga. A franchise that started as a humble yet vapid Point
Break rip-off, before becoming Universal Studio’s largest franchise, amassing 7
billion dollars worldwide. After the John Singleton helmed sequel 2 Fast 2
Furious, the reigns were handed over to Lin who helped maintain its board
multicultural appeal. The films are still rather superficial and yet their
multicultural representation is stronger than many other blockbuster franchises
it contends with. This is an extension of what Lin does in Better Luck
Tomorrow, which digs beneath the surface level of its straight-A, Asian
students. Characters such as Daric Loo (Roger Fan) and Steve Choe (a pre-fame
John Cho) are slippery in their appearance. Promoting themselves as
accomplished students at first, before revealing their sociopathic and
nihilistic tendencies. Han (Sung Kang) who is the canonical link to the Fast
and Furious series, also reveals hidden depths, shifting from the prototypical
muscle to something more sensitive. That Han becomes a well-loved member of the
fast family by audiences only helps to cement this.
Roger Ebert’s passionate defence of the movie against
hecklers who were vocal about the amorally of the Asian leads, touches on
something that has slowly become more important in conversations on racial
representation. Lin’s characters are complicated by the stereotypes expected of
them and the amorality they have an allure for. Many characters of colour are
never drawn well enough to be interesting. When they’re shown as sidekicks and
villains, they can feel cheap and tacky. Better Luck Tomorrow is strong with
building the interiors that make these characters alluring. Ben’s conflict is
felt throughout the film. He desires what most high schoolers his age desire.
He just never expected it to come from nefarious means. This of course is where
the drama lies. Better Luck Tomorrow is a film I’ve enjoyed viewing multiple
times because of how it tucks into this. It’s a film that allows its Asian
characters to be complicated, even a little amoral, because it would be more
offensive if it didn’t do anything like that.
The film’s final moments end with a succulent piece of uncertainty
involving the future of two of the film's characters. The two characters look at
each other in a way that suggests they are both sure of something that has
happened, but only one person knows. It’s a small yet ambiguous moment which feels
closer to The Graduate (1967) than any of the teen fare that Better Luck
Tomorrow was competing with. Despite seeing Better Luck Tomorrow more than
once, this moment caught me unaware this time around. For all the progression
found within the heavyweight franchise Lin become a cornerstone of, it’s
doubtful that you would find anything as subtle as within Better Luck Tomorrow’s
last couple of moments.
Better Luck Tomorrow is currently streaming on Apple TV
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