Better Luck Tomorrow
After wanting to see this movie for the past few years, I finally got around to watching it (about a month ago, lol). It was touted as a great movie that finally put Asian Americans under the spotlight. Granted it was an indie film that was only shown in select theatres, it still made it pretty big. This film explores what it would be like to take an extreme deviation from what our everyday norms are. What happened if we suddenly turned from studious students into con-artist/gang members? Does everyday monotony ever get to you? Does the thrill of doing something completely out of character appeal to you? These are the deviations this movie goes for. Who better than those boring-study-all-the-time-Asian Americans, to look at? To see what would happen if they decided to take a 180 on their life and go with it. Ok, enough babble; What did I think of it? Lets see...
We dive into the world of Ben, your prototypical Chinese smart kid in high school who gets his good grades, participates in school activities, and is working to get into a good college, just like his parents want of him. He's also pretty short, doesn't get noticed much by girls, and probably would've got cut by his school basketball team if not for dumb luck. Yup, his character sounds pretty familiar, at least to me. In Ben's circle of friends we have Daric, the president of all clubs/jock/editor-of-paper Asian; Han, the thug-wannabe Asian, and Virgil, the crazy perv who seems to do everything different from other people. (all are still really smart at school) One day of their monotonous lives, they decide to make some money by selling cheatsheets to students. It becomes a lucrative business and eventually they decide to expand their business to different realms. Eventually they're stealing equipment from schools and stores, dealing drugs, and various other scams. They became notorious in their school and even drew references to gangs and the Chinese mafia. They had developed a name for themselves that no one would have ever imagined before. Soon enough they're over their heads in problems and threats that they couldn't have imagined. What would you do if you suddenly had a dead body in your custody? What would you do if your best friend suddenly decided life wasn't worth it and committed suicide? Questions like these will be taken into scope by this movie in one person's perspective.
The overall plot to this movie is very complex. Almost too complex for it's own good. It takes on too many things at once and that was it's down fall in my opinion. I don't want to take anything away from the movie however, because for what it's worth, it was a very well made and directed film. The acting by seemingly ordinary everyday Asians wasn't much to rave about. However, Virgil's character was one that truly shown out compared to the others. His emotion and craziness really felt... real. In the end I think he was probably the actor that took the cake.
I'll be outright and just say that I didn't like the ending of the movie. You'll have to go on and watch it yourself to find out for yourself. For other Asian Americans, I would recommend it just to take a look at yourselves from outside. This may not reveal any secrets to your life, but at the very least you'll see how some of us are perceived. I give it a 6/10 + .5 for being about Asian Americans for a 6.5 out of 10. =)
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