Skip to main content

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.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

[FIST 100] Uno Reverse Card: Daughters of the Dust

 It's been a bit of a long week so I'm using the title as a joke to get a laugh out of some people.  As a bonus the title relates to the post too. I really enjoyed analyzing Daughters of the Dust and discussing Dash's may ways a defying Hollywood traditions.  I mostly enjoyed this through her sue of cinematography.  In most Hollywood films the way the story movies along via dialogue between characters, but in Daughters of the Dust this story telling is don't through largely the cinematography.  In Hollywood most cinematography are beautiful shots of some event that's happening and those shots are frequent in a movie.  Many of the shots include the main characters.  In Daughters of the Dusk, cinematography of the amazing landscape is put over dialoged to establish the world and tell the story.  It almost feels as if the camera is the main character and the cast are the4 supporting roles.  (This is why its an Uno Reverse Card).  This makes the movie rely more on cinem
5 comments
Read more

[FIST 325] Bad Hair - Pelo Malo

Pelo Malo is an interesting look into the world of Venezuelan culture.  I think that the use of Junior's hair as the plot point through throughout the film is an interesting way to explore his culture but also what Junior wants to be.  Junior tries many different ways to straiten his hair much to his mother's disapproval and this creates lots of tension within the Junior and his mother.  The thing I want to discuss in this blog is how that tension was used in the film.  The movie itself can be hard to watch at times because you feel bad for junior unable to find the support he wants and the hostility between him and his mother adds to this.  But there are also times in the film where these moments of tensions can create some beautify done scenes.  The scene I want to use as an example is the scene we watched in class where junior cuts his hair.  This is obviously a very hostile moment between Junior and his mother and this is evident in the stares they give each other.  Particu
Post a Comment
Read more

[FIST 325] Shot On iPhone: Tangerine

 I'm not really sure I have too much to say about this film so this might be a short blog post.  I think one thing I really appreciate about this film is the production and that it was shot on phones.  It gives it a sort of documentary feel but also feels genuine at the same time.  With documentaries there's always the problem of people acting differently with a camera facing them.  That obviously doesn't happen here because it is scripted so it seemed genuine since you get the feeling that your just tagging along for the ride..  I also really enjoyed how much the soundtrack was able to contribute to this film. I felt that this film had a weird sense of character development and how it draws the viewer in.  Since the viewer seems to be following the girl on their journey its easy to get connected with them and get interested in their story and root for them.  It seems weird that these girls or going for Chester after he doesn't seem that great.  You root against them an
1 comment
Read more