• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Photo

“Better Luck Tomorrow,” a film written and directed by UCLA alumnus Justin Lin, is un

When Justin Lin searched for talent for his anticipated debut feature, “Better Luck Tomorrow,” it was not the acting that dismayed him.

“When we were casting, I popped in Jason Tobin’s (the character Virgil) audition reel, and it was six scenes in a row of him in these big movies and sitcoms, but it was all just him delivering Chinese food,” Lin said. “It was really disturbing to me.”

Therein lies one of the issues on which “Better Luck Tomorrow” attempts to shed light. Not only does the film grapple with current perceptions of Asian Americans in the mass media, but it also highlights the hardships that minority actors face today. “Better Luck Tomorrow” provides an opportunity for the young Asian American acting community to show their capabilities.

When Justin Lin first shopped “Better Luck Tomorrow” around for funding, he found many people had trouble with the predominantly Asian American cast.

“I remember we were taking (the script) out, people were like, ‘We love the script, but can you change them to Caucasian characters? I know Macaulay Culkin; can he be the lead?’” he said. “But as a filmmaker, I had to make a decision to say, ‘No. This is the film we want to make.’”

Parry Shen, who played Ben, found this opportunity so valuable he was willing to work for free at a very critical time.

“This film was shot during pilot season, when most actors make all their money,” Shen said. “I was willing to forego that and do this movie for free because this role was something I’d never seen before. My agents were cursing me out at the time, but after they saw the film at Sundance, they apologized.”

John Cho, Steve in the movie, best known for coining the term “milf” in “American Pie,” found the complexities of the characters in “Better Luck Tomorrow” very appealing.

“These characters are specifically Asian American, but it’s just one component of their identity,” he said. “They were young, they lived in Orange County, they were men or women ... and all these characters are deeply, deeply flawed.”

Much of the controversy surrounding “Better Luck Tomorrow” focuses upon these flaws. The characters engage in casual sex and violence, and while the cast says some of it is hard to watch, Cho asserts that this is a vast improvement over the current one-dimensional portrayals of Asian Americans.

“There’s been a strange reaction to the bucktooth houseboy,” said Cho. “Now we have perfect people on television all the time, and that’s just as empty. It’s flaws that make you want to follow the characters’ stories.”

“Better Luck Tomorrow” has already earned high marks from critics like Roger Ebert and Elvis Mitchell and made a successful run of the film festival circuit, leading to its acquisition by MTV films. However, like any other film, it will be held to the ruthless economic standards that make it so difficult for independent films to be released in the first place.

“We’ll find out by Sunday (April 13, when box office results come in) whether we’ll move on or we’ll be gone,” said Lin. “I’m surprised how any independent film could be a success because you’re proving yourself every weekend. They expect you to perform 500 times better than the average movie, and it could be gone within a week or two weeks.”

Hollywood’s wait-and-see approach to “Better Luck Tomorrow” has yet to yield positive results for its cast of young actors. Shen’s most recent job had him playing another Chinese food delivery boy on a bike. This time, though, he didn’t have to use broken English; his character spoke Spanish.

The lack of diverse and challenging roles for minorities remains an issue in the industry, but Cho is encouraged by the potential success of “Better Luck Tomorrow” and hopes that potential artists are not discouraged.

“I meet so many Asian American kids who ask me, ‘How do your parents feel about you going into acting?’” he said. “What it tells me is there’s a lot of Asian American kids who are interested in a career in the arts and not doing it. What I would say to an Asian American actor or anyone in the arts for that matter is to not step on your own head, to go for it.”