"Better Luck Tomorrow" is the story of a handful of smart high school kids who's book-smart appearances are not always as they seem. The main character is Ben, an over-achiever who consistently remarks that pretty much everything he is does is simply to gain recognition by college admissions officers and nothing more. That's a dumb outlook for a person to have right from the start.
Ben "befriends" Daric, a fellow competitor who inducts Ben into his small gang of four, where they basically earn their time as petty thieves and other formulations of outlaws. Things soon blow way out of proportion, and, if you've seen one of these kinds of a movies, you've seen a million of them. You should know that someone always gets hurt (or worse) before any sort of moral redemption can occur (and here, there doesn't seem to be any).
I wasn't impressed with this film for several reasons. First, is the fact that an Asian-American filmmaker and all Asian-American cast took it upon themselves to entirely portray themselves in the stereotypical frame of the Asian teenager--book-smart and rich. Though, we do see obvious influences of the American teenage stereotype in general, namely those characteristics that are claimed to be the products of Suburban boredom.
The second part, too, concerns the moral ambiguity presented in the story, which tends to leave the viewer wondering exactly what the director had in mind about that he was supposed to tell us (if he did so at all) about the end of the film. As another viewer notes, too, there are certain characteristics here and there that persuade against any empathy for the main character (who appears either gutless or apathetic to the situations he becomes involved in), as well as anyone else. To paraphrase another viewer, these kids are both rich and smart (and I'll add to the mix, arrogant), so why should we feel sorry for them when they get into more trouble than they can handle? It's a hard arrangement of characters that don't seem to mesh well with the story at hand (although, the concluding ambiguity makes even this complicated).
"Better Luck Tomorrow" is actually entertaining to a point. Fleshing out the stereotypes and the inconsistencies of characters and finales, may still leave something left worth valuing.
Ben "befriends" Daric, a fellow competitor who inducts Ben into his small gang of four, where they basically earn their time as petty thieves and other formulations of outlaws. Things soon blow way out of proportion, and, if you've seen one of these kinds of a movies, you've seen a million of them. You should know that someone always gets hurt (or worse) before any sort of moral redemption can occur (and here, there doesn't seem to be any).
I wasn't impressed with this film for several reasons. First, is the fact that an Asian-American filmmaker and all Asian-American cast took it upon themselves to entirely portray themselves in the stereotypical frame of the Asian teenager--book-smart and rich. Though, we do see obvious influences of the American teenage stereotype in general, namely those characteristics that are claimed to be the products of Suburban boredom.
The second part, too, concerns the moral ambiguity presented in the story, which tends to leave the viewer wondering exactly what the director had in mind about that he was supposed to tell us (if he did so at all) about the end of the film. As another viewer notes, too, there are certain characteristics here and there that persuade against any empathy for the main character (who appears either gutless or apathetic to the situations he becomes involved in), as well as anyone else. To paraphrase another viewer, these kids are both rich and smart (and I'll add to the mix, arrogant), so why should we feel sorry for them when they get into more trouble than they can handle? It's a hard arrangement of characters that don't seem to mesh well with the story at hand (although, the concluding ambiguity makes even this complicated).
"Better Luck Tomorrow" is actually entertaining to a point. Fleshing out the stereotypes and the inconsistencies of characters and finales, may still leave something left worth valuing.