This crime drama / coming-of-age movie was the directorial debut of Justin Lin, best known for his ‘Fast and Furious‘ films. It’s the story of a group of over-achieving Asian high school kids in Southern California who turn to a life of crime for kicks. We watch as a street gang grows out of the most unexpected place.
In the opening scene of the movie, two teenaged boys are relaxing in the sunny backyard of a Southern California home. They hear a cell phone ringing, and quickly realize that it’s not theirs; it’s in the pocket of the dead body they just buried. The imagery of blue skies and green grass is juxtaposing against dirt and worms wrapped around a dead guy’s fingers! Yuck!
The movie flashes back four months, and introduces main character Ben. He’s an honours student, applying for early admission to University to get out of his suburban ‘hall hole’. He’s on the basketball team, the academic decathlon and has a part time job at fast food joint and feels suppressed. His ‘partner in crime’ is his childhood friend Virgil, a brilliant but goofy kid who models himself on hip-hop culture. They start by running ‘scams’ with Virgil’s cousin Han Lue, the Asian Arthur Fonzarelli. Unlike the ‘boys’ Han is a man because he has a car; a red 1965 Ford Mustang hardtop. Not a rich kid, Han seems to be from a blue collar family where hard work (like rebuilding a V8) is engrained into him.
The gang congeals around Derrick, the tall, good-looking, class valedictorian who appears all squeaky clean, but introduces them to his bigger scams, which he is never suspected of because of his straight-laced appearance. The gang starts by stealing new computers from their school, and defrauding local electronics shops. They may be flush with cash, but these are still just high-school kids going through the trials and tribulations of dating. While at a party, Derrick shows that he’s the alpha by pulling a gun on a bully mocking their crew. This cements the gang’s reputation. The decision to start dealing drugs seemed like a natural progression from that point.
Ben is in love with his classmate Stephanie Vandergosh. She’s a beautiful Asian girl with the same over-achiever attitude as him. While Ben rides the bench at the basketball games (he is just the token Asian kid) he stares at Stephanie in her cheerleader uniform. But unlike Ben, Stephanie is a rich kid, adopted by a white family. Early in the movie, she drives around in a teal 1994 Acura Integra, but upon graduation, is given a brand new 2001 Audi TT convertible by her family.
Ben deeply resents Stephanie’s boyfriend Steve, who is everything that Ben is not; rich, confident and good looking with impeccable style. When Steve first appears on screen he’s riding as motorcycle, like Steve McQueen or Marlon Brando from the movies. Steve has a 1969 BMW R50/2 motorcycle, a restored classic with an very advanced 4-speed transmission, demonstrating that he is a man of taste who respects the classics.
When Steve wants “in” on the gang’s criminal activities, they boys string him along. They let him into their crew until they learn that his big score is actually ripping off his own family. This deeply offends the Asian American upbringing of the gang, who deeply want to please their parents. They decide to teach Steve a lesson he won’t forget (and maybe Ben can steal his girl in the process). After all, just look at that 1998 BMW 318i he drives. Rich kid got that from mommy and daddy! Now he wants to rob his parents? No, no, no…
What makes the movie so compelling is that it’s not the story of under-privileged, inner-city youth for whom ‘gang life’ was the only option. It’s the tale of teenaged restlessness from the perspective of Asian American kids. Thee all live in nice houses, get good grades, and have their whole life ahead of them But the allure of being a tough guy and getting away with murder is too strong. Since this is a morality tale, it all goes wrong in the end (crime don’t pay, kids) and the gang breaks up. We don’t really see the aftermath, but we do know that Han Lue runs off to Mexico, and eventually Tokyo, where he changes his name to Han Seoul-Oh and opens a garage specializing in drifting.
Director Justin Lin has confirmed that Han from ‘Better Luck Tomorrow‘ is the same Han from ‘Fast & Furious 3: Tokyo Drift‘. He’s got the same bravado and James Dean mannerisms. Sure, Han switched from a classic Mustang to a VeilSide RX-7, but this is the same character.
In the Fast & Furious movies, it’s acknowledged that Han’s compulsive snacking are the actions of a reformed smoker, and Han in ‘Better Luck Tomorrow‘ is a chain smoker. There’s even a cool throw away line in one scene of ‘Better Luck Tomorrow‘ where the crew are driving down the highway in the red Mustang, and narrator Ben comments about their gang “Rumors about us came and went fast and furious.“.
Watching currently. Did you ever see Leave it to Beaver? The Beav is the biology teacher. I didn’t know he had a career after his stint on LITB
Sure, I saw Beaver on re-runs as a kid. But I absolutely didn’t notice him in this movie. Good catch! He is unrecognizable, though.
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Side note, MC Hammer partially funded this film.
There certainly are a lot of beautiful young people in this film! Still midwatch.
And to think the movie is 20+ years old and you can see what they look like as middle aged adults!
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I’m not sure if you’ve ever watched the stoner comedy “Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle” but star of that movie John Cho is in this movie too.
Oh yeah! I did watch that movie. I love seeing the overlap in films. Like the main character in The Cars that Ate Paris had parts is several other of Weir’s films like The Truman Show.
If you take a look at director Justin Lin, he looks an awful lot like Sung Kang, the actor who plays Han. I suspect that aside from just being a ‘crossover’ character, he represents Lin on screen. He’s Justin Li ‘s projection.