He maxed out all 10 of his credit cards and held his breath to make his newest film. Now, two years later, Justin Lin can exhale. At 26-years-old, the director is living his dream and taking it all in very slowly. Lin is the director of “Better Luck Tomorrow,” a film about a group of Asian American high school students living in southern California who are involved in drugs and scandals all while sustaining their place on the honor roll.
Lin directed the indie film that originally started out as a 30-page short form thesis script for UCLA film school. The story of four friends Ben (Parry Shen), Virgil (Jason Tobin), Daric (Roger Fan), and Han (Sung Kang) is a coming of age tale from the Asian American upperclass perspective.
Ben is the most focused one of the group. His main objective when he first appears on screen is to get into a prestigious college. Ben has the collegiate system all figured out. He knows that universities look for well-rounded students and he does everything he can to fit this mold. He joins the basketball team, works an afterschool job and is the member of an academic decathalon team. Ben is sending his application to places like Harvard and Princeton, and he is confident about his chances of getting in.
Their lives are all pretty simple until the crew decides to get involved in a slew of scams that go from ripping off warehouse stores to becoming the middle men in a drug chain. This does not appear to be the typical behavior of honor students. It is no mistake that the characters are like this; Lin sets out to make these characters 3D so they don’t become cartoonish.
Through his newfound popularity and swindling, Ben finds himself falling for Stephanie (Karin Anna Cheung), the popular cheerleader, however Steve (John Cho) is the only thing that stands between Ben and Stephanie.
However, the movie almost didn’t make it onto the big screen. Lin felt tremendous pressure from studio execs who were anxious to distribute the movie after seeing it at the Sundance Film Festival. The suits wanted him to change the characters from Asian Americans to Caucasians, but Lin could not be dissuaded and MTV Films finally picked up his film. Lin was relieved that he was able to have his movie put in a major movie market without having to sacrifice his beliefs.
The movie is now well on its way. The cast was featured in the March issue of Vibe magazine. The only person in the film who has had a substantial amount of exposure to a main stream audience is John Cho, who was in films such as “American Pie 2,” “American Beauty” and “Down to Earth.”
“Better Luck Tomorrow” is more than just a film, it delves into adolescent violence and goes to show that just because someone is a straight A student and has a lot of money doesn’t necessarily mean that they do not have violent tendencies.
“I think a lot of times even the smart kids sometimes have more problems,” Lin said.
“Better Luck Tomorrow” opens in select theaters on Friday, April 11.
