“You know how you make decisions that lead to other decisions but you don’t remember why you made those decisions in the first place.”

Wow! At the end of this movie you will be speechless. There are so many scenes in this movie that you want to talk about but can’t find the words to fill what you are feeling.  It was surprising to see that his friend that wanted all the trouble couldn’t handle the pressure of killing someone so he would try to end his life. This movie was not a bad movie it was different. Different then a Hollywood ending or something that was predictable. This movie was definitely different, in a good way.  

At the start of the movie you couldn’t help to notice the title ¨Better Luck Tomorrow.” It was a fitting title for the movie. These boys that have everything going for them couldn’t help but want to cause trouble. The movie opens up with two young boys talking about how college is going to be a different experience leaving the audience blind of what they will see at the end. You see Ben as a straight edge kid but gets himself in bad situations. You watch as he starts experimenting with drugs because he tries to keep up his job as being a student, stealing and selling drugs. Better Luck tomorrow comes from how these boys really have no luck rather thats killing a man when you are supposed to be the look out, over dosing on the drugs that was snorted, or not being able to lose your virginity when your craziness comes out when you pull a gun on the prostitute that was hired. The bad luck continues as Ben kills his crushes boyfriend. When he finally realizes that she likes him back he has a big secret that would definitely end the relationship and even put him in prison. 

“Yeah, the library is closed.” You couldn’t help but notice the model minority myth. As the movie progresses you can’t help to notice the nice cars, the smart Asians, and how they weren’t really great in sports.  In the movie you see Ben shooting free throws but see how terrible he is at shooting them. We watch as he is a bench-warmer that never gets in the games but was put on the team because the coach needed minority on the team.  Ben and his friends are supposed to be high school students but are driving Mustangs and convertibles even though they are seniors. Making the impression that their parents had money. In the movie Ben and his friends are always getting over on people because they are so smart that they can manage to out play everyone. 

This film was unique, dark, and had humor to it about suburbia and cultural stereotypes. Throughout the film, especially the first half, Asian American stereotypes were either happening or being mocked. And the interesting thing is at least one of the Asian American characters was using the stereotypes to his advantage. A few that I saw included:

1. Deric, who is Asian American, writes an article about Ben, who is also Asian American, stating that affirmative action needs to take place for Ben. Deric tells Ben to his face that he is the “token Asian” and that’s why he was allowed to join the basketball team. The article also makes Ben popular among his classmates. However Ben becomes angry about the article and tells Deric he didn’t think it was right. Deric laughs and tells Ben he shouldn’t care about what other people think. This is partly when Ben’s life begins to spiral out o f control.

2. All the main characters who are Asian American are the stereotypical “smart Asians” who are trying to get into Ivy League colleges. Ben memorizes and recites a new SAT word every night, all characters take extremes to study, and are overall “perfect.”

3. Whites stereotype Asian Americans in the film: a white male high school student mocks the characters for their “perfect” image, and the basketball couch only has Ben on the team to look good.

4.  Han (I think) who is Asian American made a joke out of the stereotypes.

Overall I think this film is very important because it layers yet meshes the Asian American stereotypes from the perspective of Asian Americans themselves.

In the dark, a gun was heard, a baseball bat was swung, and there was blood everywhere.

This is the moment where it all goes to hell. Ben stares blankly, free from a rage that consumed him only milliseconds prior. The others remain still, the horror of the situation only beginning to settle in. Through the dark, a light illuminates only the group and the mass of a human body. Jesus enters, a plan is made, and then suddenly. . .

. . .the body twitches.

If ever there is a change in tone, this is THE moment. This is one of the big reasons why I enjoyed this film – it has the ability to shift so strongly and quickly that it becomes an entirely different animal at the end of it. It reminded me of “Nisei Daughter” and how that author was able to shift the tone of a chapter within the context of her story, like when the main character goes off to be hospitalized for TB. The film itself showed a lot more than I was expected, such as the drug use and nudity, but it really wasn’t a big of deal. Instead, I felt the film really examined the stereotypes (not just Asian American but maybe “nerdy” students in general) and kind of threw them out the window. Ben, while conforming somewhat to the “model student” stereotype, really stretches beyond all of that. He himself doesn’t care if he’s cast as the “token Asian” on the basketball team, and is subjected to the whims of those who take up that cause in his place.

I’ll finish this later!

“Ain’t no party like a wild cat party, cuz a wild cat party don’t stop”-Wild Cat Cheerleaders

Ben, Virgil, Han, & Daric bit off more than they can chew living a double life in suburbia. With that opening quote in mind, their “extra-curricular activities” was one for the college books.To get into the theme of Asian/American pop culture, I felt that the film gave a very different perspective on the “typical stereotypes” of Asian Americans. The foundation of this film is, “Never underestimate an overachiever”.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ring, Ring… Ring Ring, was the sound in the opening scene of the film, ¨Better Luck Tomorrow¨, where two of the main character, Ben and Virgil, trace the ringing to a grave of an unknown person barried in the backyard of a seemingly quiet suburban house. These two seemingly innocent young men who were talking of their college applications and futures, coincidentally had a lot more to do with this dead body that one would think they unexpectedly came upon.

First off I must say the film, ¨Better Luck to Tomorrow¨ was a fantastic story that was comical at times and dark at others. It was by far the most surprising movie I have seen of late. From the opening scene I would not have expected the movie to twist and turn into such a dark place and at the end left me with my mouth hanging wide open in surprise.

The film follows four main characters the narrator being the character Ben. All of which are bright students with bright futures. They excel in the classroom, and have seemingly bright futures. However their extra curricular activities are dark and surprising, ranging from planning and executing multiple scams, the selling of drugs, and eventually murder.

Furthermore in regards to this class and Asian American culture I found that this film did a great job of taking the theory of Asian Americans being stereotyped as the ¨Model minority¨ and playing and twisting this idea. Yes, these students were Asian Americans, and were brilliant hard working high school students, however their lawbreaking deeds in which they used their whits and cleverness to pull off, shows that you cannot always judge a book by its cover, and make claims of a person based upon stereotypes. Everyone regardless of race or creed has their own personal problems, aspirations, and personalities, and by stereotyping people you can miss the person behind the mask.