HIFF
Hau (Sung Kang), Virgil (Jason Tobin) and Ben (Parry Shen) get into a world of trouble in "Better Luck Tomorrow."
Two years ago, the Hawaii International Film Festival was fortunate enough to be one of the first to screen "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," helping start the wave of critical and popular enthusiasm and success for the film nationwide. Bold ‘Better Luck’ gives depth
Symphonic cinema vérité
to Asian Americans
Shooting from the HIFF
By Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.comNow the festival may find itself in a similar position with "Better Luck Tomorrow," a terrific Asian-American independent film directed by Justin Lin that created a major buzz after screening at this year's Sundance Film Festival. This boldly stylized and well-acted film, about a group of supposedly model teenagers whose double life of crime results in murder, could be the breakout movie for the Asian-American community, much as Spike Lee's "She's Gotta Have It" was for African Americans.
After enthusiastically received screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and several Asian-American festivals, "BLT" debuts tomorrow night in Waikiki.
Because the film was acquired by MTV Films after Sundance, Lin has been given the luxury of doing some minor reshooting for "BLT" thanks to additional funding provided by the studio in preparation for the film's national release in January.
Speaking by phone the day before reshootings began in Los Angeles, Lin said he's grateful for the additional funding and for having retained creative control. MTV Films allowed him to keep the film's R-rated frankness without toning it down for the PG-13 rating other studios had requested.
"When we made the film, we basically had no money, and once we weighed the pros and cons of doing a movie like this, everyone had to do it for the right reasons," he said. "From there we went for broke. Once studios got interested in picking up the movie for national distribution, it was a struggle for me as an artist to accept the changes asked for by other companies vying for the film."
MTV Films allowed Lin "final cut" to "Better Luck Tomorrow" (the title a tribute to one of Lin's favorite films, John Woo's Hong Kong-made "A Better Tomorrow.")
"I have to compliment them because they've been able to make both smaller, interesting films like 'Election' and 'Orange County,' and huge profitable movies like Britney Spears' 'Crossroads' and 'Jackass,' which made $23 million in its first weekend in theaters," Lin said. "So they know how to market their films.
"It's great that they want to help bring something more challenging to our demographic, and it feels good to be an independent filmmaker with this kind of muscle behind me. I do realize that the movie will not open up in, like, 2,300 theaters across the country on one weekend. The fight's not over yet!"
What Lin, his producers and his cast have been experiencing of late is similar to what his teenage protagonists went through in the movie. When his Orange County-grown group graduate from selling "cheat sheets" to include drugs and theft, they become feared and respected Big Men on Campus at their high school.
While fear is not a factor in Lin's case, respect is.
"One of the things I wanted to show in my film is that all of my main characters weren't going to end up in the same place. The guiding philosophy was that every one of them brought a specific perspective, yet all are Asian American. Fabian Marquez, Ernesto Foronda and I were very aware of that as we were writing the screenplay, to stay true to these perspectives throughout the film.
"What I like is that I tried to have all of us, all Asian Americans, represented on screen, and that they have depth and are three-dimensional characters, whether they be small or large roles," Lin said.
Of course, it helps to get the backing of a well-regarded critic as Roger Ebert, who, during a heated Q&A post-screening session at Sundance, responded to accusations of the movie's amorality by saying, "This film has the right to be about these people, and Asian-American characters have the right to be whoever the hell they want to be!"
ALTHOUGH "BLT" does a great job in depicting the upper-class, conservative environs of a tony Southern California community, Lin says it's a kind of place that's prevalent throughout America.
"Was my experience growing up there that unique?" he said. "When I worked with Julie (Asato, his co-producer, who's originally from Hawaii) at the Japanese-American National Museum in L.A., I would travel to places like Sacramento and Houston, Texas, and I found out that Orange County was everywhere -- the houses were the same and the shopping malls were the same.
"The only difference I found was that, even though I'm not that far removed from my own youth, it's definitely a different time. (Today's youth are) far more mobile, and I've always wondered why upper-middle-class teenage boys like my characters would adopt this urban gangster mentality."
(There's a telling moment in the film where the group of them are in a car, reliving a triumphant moment of beating down a bunch of white, athletic types at a party. In the meantime a group of gangbangers in a car pulls up next to them, mouthing unheard but still threatening epithets while one of them brandishes a gun.)
This is Lin's second stab at feature filmmaking. His first film was made while he was still a film student at UCLA. "Shopping for Fangs" was released to mixed reviews and no financial success back in 1997.
"Without that first film, I wouldn't have learned how to shoot, light, do sound and, more importantly, communicate and work with a crew and actors," he said. "I learned how to tell a story on film.
"'Shopping for Fangs' was so low-budget, another thing I learned is that whether a film is made for $10 million or $10, people will judge it for what it is. With this film, I knew I had no excuse. I went in knowing I had no money and, with that energy, I assembled the right people to help. It just took a little time." (Plus 10 credit cards and $5,000 from the former MC Hammer, who he met at a video convention in Las Vegas.)
"Filmmaking's all about pressure," Lin said. "I made the film not for it to be a breakout of some kind, but because the social issues it addresses are important to us. Now I've gone away from the high-risk, credit card-using kind of filmmaking, and I feel like I'm on a different career level, where I'm signing deals with studios and other independent producers."
WHILE THERE ARE plans for Lin and his cast to follow the national opening of "BLT" from city to city, he realizes that, no matter how well MTV Films may market his film, "it's not a popcorn movie -- it needs word-of-mouth support."
"The danger is, if it doesn't do well at the box office, it's over," he said. "But it has helped that the big national critics are backing up the film, and I'm hoping the Asian Americans will come out and support it, and bring in a curious arthouse crowd as well."
The push continues tomorrow night. Lin, Marquez, Asato and cast member Roger Fan will attend the screening.
"I'm treasuring this entire experience, all part of my personal journey," Lin said. "It's been the most intense two years of my life. In fact, a year ago today I had to sell my truck in order to finish the film. Our entire lives have turned upside down because of the level of commitment and passion all of us put into this film, and what's happened afterward."
Gala presentation for the Hawai'i International Film Festival 'Better Luck Tomorrow'
Where: Waikiki Twins 2 theater
When: 6:30 p.m. tomorrow
Tickets: $7
Call: 528-4433
Also: 8 p.m. Nov. 9 at Maui Arts & Cultural Center
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