Better Luck Tomorrow
by
Howard Schumann

Made for only $250,000, Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow is a dark comedy about a group of over-achieving Asian-American high school students in Orange County, California, whose boredom and feelings about being outsiders lead to acts of petty crime and ultimately to serious violence. It is a film that challenges assumptions about Asian-Americans as asexual computer nerds, showing that they can be just as shallow and bereft of values as any white-skinned American. The film has been hyped in the Asian community as something that needs to be supported. As voiced in an "open letter" from lead actor Parry Shen, "It is not just a movie. What hinges on this release is so much larger than the film itself." While I agree that this film is a welcome antidote to the traditional representation of Asian-Americans on film, it must be judged on its merits rather than as a statement about an ethnic group's representation on screen.

The film is narrated by Shen, a 30-year-old actor playing 16-year-old student Ben Manibag. His narration sounds as if he's rehearsing for a high school play, speaking lines like "The morning after I lost my virginity, we won the national championship," and "You never forget the sight of a dead body. But then again, I was experiencing a lot of things for the first time. I guess it's just part of growing up." Ben and his friends Han (Sung Kang), Daric (Roger Fan) and Virgil (Jason J. Tobin) have everything going for them: top grades, near-perfect SAT scores, lots of money, extra-curricular activities, social clubs, and not even a parent in sight to call on them once in a while. "Our straight A's were our alibis, our passports to freedom. As long as we got great grades, out parents didn't care where we were," Ben explains.

Shot in the MTV-style with jump cuts and rock music, the film opens with the discovery of a dead body underneath the lawn of a suburban backyard, then flashes back four months to tell its story. After Daric writes an article about Ben being the token Asian on the basketball team, he invites Ben to join with his group in their questionable adventures. They start by selling "cheat sheets" to students, then to running a credit card scam at a computer store, snorting cocaine, selling drugs, and ultimately to violence. They seem to love their bad boy image; it's all good fun. "It felt good to do things that I couldn't put on my college application," explains Ben. "Besides, it was suburbia -- we had nothing better to do." Other good things to do involve a clichèd romantic triangle between Ben, Stephanie (Karin Anna Cheung), Ben's lab partner, and Steve (John Cho), a rich kid with an attitude.

While the movie is a sincere effort by a talented new director, it did not ring true for me. An American film with an Asian cast (the first since The Joy Luck Club) that avoids ethnic stereotyping was long overdue. But I was unconvinced by the one-dimensional performances, and felt that the shift in the main character's personality, even accounting for years of suppressed anger, was too abrupt to be believable. To make a coherent statement about the pressure put on Asian kids to excel would have been welcome. Instead, what Better Luck Tomorrow offers is a Quentin Tarantino wannabe, a hopped-up exercise in "cool" with extended shots of brutality and an ending that can politely be called morally dubious. No attempt is made to explain the feelings or thoughts of these boys either before or after they commit their acts, and that funny thing called "conscience" is as far removed from the film's reality as any adult authority figures. The effect, rather than a commendable attempt to resist offering facile explanations, is to glorify the crimes and make them feel acceptable.

It is reported that Lin tightened up the editing, added new scenes, and "toned down" the ending because some viewers thought it was "too cynical." I would hate to have seen the original.

Running on Empty, a 1988 film by Sidney Lumet, is a sympathetic look at a family in hiding from the authorities as a result of having committed a bomb attack on a napalm laboratory in 1970 to protest the Vietnam War. The attack left a janitor blinded and led to the pursuit of the family by the FBI for fifteen years. The film describes the disruption in the lives of the parents, Arthur and Annie Pope (Judd Hirsch and Christine Lahti) and its effect on their two sons, 17-year-old Danny (River Phoenix) and 10-year-old Harry (Jonas Abry).

One of my favorite films of the 80s, Running on Empty never fails to move me. It is a powerful depiction of the conflicting pressures that the family faces as a result of their violent protest. The Popes have to be one step of the FBI just to keep out of their grasp. This means repeatedly changing locations and identities and falsifying school records for their children. Danny is a talented pianist whose remarkable abilities are discovered when he enrolls in a music class at a suburban high school in New Jersey. Things get complicated when Danny falls in love with Lorna Phillips (Martha Plimpton), the daughter of his music teacher (Ed Crowley). Their relationship is beautifully delineated in a scene where the two walk on a beach and Danny, in spite of his deepening feelings for Lorna, is secretive and evasive when questioned. The music teacher convinces Danny to audition for the Julliard School of Music in New York, an act that crystallizes the boy's conflict. He desperately wants to live his own life but knows that if he goes to College, he may never see his parents again.

Phoenix, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance, is terrific as the tough minded, yet vulnerable and caring Danny. Judd Hirsch and Christine Lahti are equally convincing as a couple on the run, torn between their own survival, the things that they believe in, and the future of their children. The warmth and love of the family is palpably evident in the scene at Annie's birthday party, when everyone, including girlfriend Lorna, join together to dance to the James Taylor song "Fire and Rain." Another beautiful scene is when Annie meets her father in a restaurant after fourteen years to discuss Danny's future.

Running on Empty is a film of ideas. The smart, original screenplay (Naomi Foner) does not resort to polemics, but enables us to consider for ourselves how far we would go to support a cause we believe in, and how our actions can affect those we care about. In the 60s there were debates in both the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War protests between those who preached non-violence and those, like the Weathermen, who advocated the use of force. Others raised the consciousness of people in support of an end to an illegal and unjust war. Ultimately, everyone had to decide for themselves what limits to put on their actions, and whether the end justified the means.

The film does not judge the actions of the characters, nor does it justify them. Lumet and Foner view the Popes as fallible human beings who have made a mistake and must pay the price, even though what they did was an act of conscience to stop the napalming of civilians in Vietnam. That they want to keep the family together is not about laying a guilt trip on their children, but about a parental love that is so deep that the thought of never seeing their children again is overwhelming. Perhaps there are those who can stand in judgment about this, but it may be different if they were parents facing the same situation. I personally don't know how I would have acted. It is difficult enough to let go under normal circumstances.

©2003 Howard Schumann
CineScene