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Masculinity and Parodying: Better Luck Tomorrow

Although I was not a particularly huge fan of the film, "Better Luck Tomorrow" is a breakthrough film for Asian American film directed by future Fast and Furious director Justin Lin.  The movie does a great job in achieving its goal of braking certain stereotypes that exist in mainstream media like Hollywood, but some things that the movie is trying to parody left me confused.  I don't think the movie in itself was bad, its actually a good film, but this one wasn't for me.  Maybe this is because I have seen so many movies of a similar genre lately, but I digress

Continuing on what I said earlier in the introduction of this blog, the movie the parodying the teen movie genre and also being a standalone film for mainstream cinema.  The biggest break in stereotype of this movie is just simply how the main characters are portrayed.  Margaret Hillenbrand breaks down this intention in her reading Of Myths and Men: Better Luck Tomorrow and the Mainstreaming of Asian America Cinema.  In her opening paragraphs, Hillenbrand writes, "Seldom granted a cinematic space outside the laundry, the triad, the kung-fu club, or the academic decathlon, Asian American men are so far from landing roles where they might "get the girl" that access to fully fledged, three-dimensional masculinity (Hillenbrand 50)."  By having the cast of this movie act as the main characters of a class with masculinity and being something that isn't the smart kid or the chess players is a break in the stereotype that is expected from a mainstream audience.  The particular part about "getting the girl" is also this movie's way of parading the teen movie genre with a gangster type person getting the girl.

The whole thing about getting the girl in the end was one of my biggest complaints of the movie, because it almost felt like he didn't deserve the girl with what happened in the film.  I just felt very forced and I wish it didn't go down that way.  Despite my specific criticisms about the film, watching Asian Americans portrayed in this way showing, masculinity and being something different from the stereotype, was something I enjoyed to see, and I am glad that we studied such a breakthrough film.


Section of the Poster for the Movie


Comments

  1. LaurenJanuary 24, 2021 at 5:43 PM

    I also feel like he didn't deserve to end up with her, but I feel like the film kind of acknowledged that. At least it seemed to recognize that it felt wrong and ended with that ambiguity and openness where I felt that it wasn't actually going to end well for either of them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AmyJanuary 25, 2021 at 9:15 PM

    I think this movie is actually only really entertaining if you watch it as parody. Otherwise, I dont feel like the story holds up as anything even slightly realistic.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ace BJanuary 27, 2021 at 5:12 PM

    Thats an interesting point that this film is recreating a former film in an Asian style leaving the storyline pretty much predictable. I agree that the relationship between Ben and Stephanie was over-sexualized and forced. While Ben seemed to think Stephanie deserved better than Steve, he had no problem participating in over-sexualizing her with Virgil.

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