FILMMAKER MAGAZINE ARTICLE FOR "BLT" (Taken from Justin Lin's MySpace Blog)

02/01/2003

Need to Succeed

Justin Lowe

Audiences bring certain preconceptions shaped by two decades of ethnic cinema to Asian American films. They expect narratives and themes to revolve around issues of immigration, assimilation and identity, as filmmakers seek to both contrast and relate the multi-ethnic experiences of Asian Americans to trends in mainstream culture. And with so few Asian-American features achieving wide distribution, filmmakers often face the double burden of creating "positive" representations of their communities while also achieving their own personal artistic visions.

In his solo directorial debut, BETTER LUCK TOMORROW, filmmaker Justin Lin presents a strikingly unconventional perspective that marks a notable departure from the identity politics that have characterized Asian-American cinema for 20 years. Armed with a glossy style, Lin has made an independent film that, by employing the tropes of genre moviemaking, somehow manages to recontextualize the Asian-American experience within the larger framework of commercial cinema.

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