YOUNG AND RESTLESS: An interview with Better Luck Tomorrow director Justin Lin.
By Warren
Curry
4/10/03
Part 1 of 2
Better Luck Tomorrow director Justin Lin
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YOUNG AND RESTLESS: An interview with Better Luck Tomorrow director Justin Lin. By Warren
Curry Part 1 of 2 |
Better Luck Tomorrow director Justin Lin |
Far less Tarantino-esque than the advertising would lead you to believe, Lin's film is one of the more mature coming-of-age movies, that still has its sights set on the older-teen, 20-something demographic, to be seen in a long while. Using the contemporary American teen movie as a starting point, Lin branches out into thematic territory that has more in common with Mean Streets, or even a cautionary suburbia-gone-wrong tale like American Beauty, than it does the American Pie franchise.
CinemaSpeak spoke with writer/director Justin Lin at Better Luck Tomorrow's recent Los Angeles press day. The film's cast includes Parry Shen, Jason Tobin, Sung Kang, Roger Fan, John Cho and Karin Anna Cheung. Oh yeah, there's even a cameo by Jerry Mathers…but not as The Beaver.
(Note: This interview was conducted as part of a press roundtable, therefore not all questions were asked by CinemaSpeak.)
(Read the review of Better Luck Tomorrow)
How long did it take you to complete the film and when did you first develop the idea?
I was working with kids in about '98/'99 and I started the project then. I was working full time, going to school and getting my masters. It was tough, but I kept on going at it. It took us about a year and a half to get the script to (the point) where we thought it was ready to go. Once it was ready to go -- it was about August of 2000 -- I said, "Look, February of 2001, no matter what, we're going to shoot this film." By doing that it sped up the whole process, and we did start shooting in February. We finished it in 5 weeks and finished editing in about 3 months. The submission deadline for Sundance was September 2001, we got it in there and then in 2002 we came out at Sundance. For an independent film, I think it was relatively quick.
You have previously mentioned that the Monday following the Sundance acceptance, your phone was ringing off the hook. Any comical, Hollywood, "I'll make you a star" stories?
There are always those guys who call up, and I was like, "Have you seen the film?" They want to sign you up, and I'm not cattle. This film is exactly the same as before we submitted to Sundance when no one would return our calls. Now that we got in, everyone's calling? The struggle gave me perspective. I was able to take my time; I said, "Go to Sundance, watch the film and then you can decide for yourself."
Talk about the financing of this movie. At one point, I understand you had 10 credit cards and M.C. Hammer was involved?
I tried to go out and find investors, but I realized that I didn't know any investors. I grew up in a working class family, and I didn't know anybody with investment money. It drove me to go the credit card route, because I could either say, "Okay, I'm going to keep on trying to meet people, or I just have to set a date and go." And I decided to set the date, which was February of 2001, and I was going to go no matter what. Even if I had $10 we were going to shoot on D.V. In retrospect, it was good to have that goal. Julie Asato, who is one of the producers, and I just started applying (for credit cards), and we got 10 credit cards and thought, "Okay, let's go." It was kind of naïve, because as the film grew from D.V. to High-Def to 35mm, the budget went up and the money was already being spent. I actually had to learn how to create an entity, because when you're going to find investors you can't just say, "Hey, can I have some money?" I had to learn how to create an L.L.C. (Limited Liability Company), I had to learn about security loss, I had to learn about P.P.M. (Private Placement Memorandums), and everything like that. Part of that was going out and trying to find small investors, so luckily with the ball rolling I was able to meet people and tell them we had a crew and cast. I was able to go into meetings and get little investments here and there, but the thing with the P.P.M. was that I needed to raise a minimum amount (of money) by a certain date, or else it would all go back. It was two days before and we were still short, and that's when I was like, "I don't know anybody!" Then I remembered I had met M.C. Hammer when I was writing the script in Vegas.
How did you meet him?
I was doing research on D.V. and he was too -- we met at a trade show. I talked to him, and he gave me his number. I didn't think I was ever going to talk to him, but I had his number and it would be a great story to tell my friends. Out of desperation, I called him up and said, "I need your help." He had read the script and really liked it, and was like, "What do you need?" I told him, and he said, "don't worry." Two hours later -- boom -- he wired it into the account, we hit the minimum and he saved us.
What did you think about the incident with Roger Ebert standing up at Sundance to defend your film?
I think it was great because he put everything in perspective. It was amazing to me, because after Sundance I talked to a lot of journalists and found out that Denzel Washington was getting a lot of flack for playing the cop in Training Day. I feel as a society we just need to sit down and redefine what "positive" means. A lot of times people mistake "positive" for "pure" and "noble" and "flawless." I don't want to see that on screen -- that's very one-dimensional and is almost as bad as caricatures. I think that any time you see three-dimensional portrayals and explore the complexities of human beings, that's always positive and that's always empowering. But if these characters have big flaws, people always just see it as bad. The good, bad, evil -- our world's more complex than that, and I want to explore that. As a filmmaker, I want to be positive and empowering to be able to say, "Look, I want to explore these issues."
The person at Sundance who criticized the film did so on the basis that you have a responsibility to represent the Asian-American community more positively. Do you feel you have any responsibility to represent the Asian-American community?
I think if I have any responsibility to my community it is to be the best filmmaker I can be. I should not be swayed by any kind of agenda. How can I explore these issues of teen violence and at the same time make (these characters) pure and flawless and noble? What kind of film would that be? It's funny, because the guy (who criticized the film) wasn't Asian-American, but he brought up a really interesting point. We are a society that tends to want to label things and say, "This is good, this is bad." That's what we're exploring here too. I work with kids -- I work with them in sports, I work with them in media and at the same time, all these incidents of teen violence would pop up everywhere. As a society, I've always found that we treat these incidents on such a superficial level. People read the papers and think, "They're just bad kids or bad parents." Then they throw away the paper and two weeks later something else happens. I've worked with kids and I can tell you, for the most part, I'm pretty sure these kids are not bad kids. They're just kids who make really bad mistakes and they're human beings. The only way we can come up with some sort of solution, hopefully, is to bring up the questions and have a dialogue with each other. I think that's positive.
Do you have plans to make more movies about suburban youth or Asian-Americans?
I have projects that have Asian-American
characters, I have projects that have Caucasian characters, projects
that have African-American characters -- the issues are what drive
me as a filmmaker. Obviously, representation on screen is something
that's important to me. I will definitely continue to make more
films like (Better Luck Tomorrow). Because of everything
that's happened, I've had the opportunity to explore studio filmmaking
and that's a whole a different process. I don't know if I like
it or not, but I'm using the opportunity, I'm learning and working
on projects (at studios), but I'm also working on independent
projects. It's exciting for me to be in this space, but I don't
know exactly what it all means yet. I'm just learning.
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for Part Two
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