• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

A week from Friday, MTV Films is releasing its new film, “Better Luck Tomorrow,” which features overachieving American high schoolers who idle in their idyllic suburbia until they develop violent lives of crime.

It’s a vibrantly tense picture about teenage identity that caused controversy at Sundance. In a post-screening discussion, the negative hubbub even prompted critic Roger Ebert to defend the film. The controversy stemmed not only from the fact that the film shows how these kids develop Columbine-esque behavior, but also because the entire cast is Asian.

Excuse me, Asian American.

The epithet is important, because “Better Luck Tomorrow” never makes any reference to the Asian-ness of its characters. The film fights against painful stereotypes that often involve traditionalist parents wearing ethnic garb and speaking with thick accents. On the contrary, the film has a rock soundtrack, and the story and characters have more to do with Bret Easton Ellis than “Kiss of the Dragon.”

Justin Lin, a UCLA alumnus and writer/director of “Better Luck Tomorrow,” grew up in Orange County, and his film may be the breakthrough Asian Americans and perhaps other epitheted peoples deserve. To get a taste go see the film for free Wednesday night at the James Bridges Theater.

If you think this breakthrough is good, or if you’re a minority and would like to see yourself portrayed on screen as an American and not as an “other,” then you should not only watch the free on-campus screening Wednesday but also watch it in theaters opening weekend. As concerned about social justice as big media conglomerates are, I’m guessing they’ll follow their pocketbooks a bit more reliably.

The appearance of Asians in film is certainly not new. The first film to feature an entirely Asian American cast was “Flower Drum Song,” the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical about a clash of cultures: arranged marriages versus love, rock and roll versus Chinese opera, and Eastern versus Western. Setting the standard for future Asian American film ventures, the “Flower Drum Song” cast proved they could hold their own, but never managed to shake off their Asian-ness.

The same phenomenon occurred with Margaret Cho’s well-intentioned but short-lived sitcom “All-American Girl,” which even employed an Asian consultant to spice up its ethnic “otherness.”

Today, more often than not, the reason Asian Americans are on screen is still because they are Asian. Films such as “Shanghai Knights,” “Kiss of the Dragon,” “Cradle 2 the Grave,” “Ocean’s Eleven,” and the upcoming “Bulletproof Monk” carefully make it clear to the audience that Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Chow Yun Fat are in a movie because the movie is about some international/Chinese hooey, not because they are good actors.

Studios are afraid to show Asian Americans as Americans without including overblown Asian-ness. Chan, Li and Chow remain celibate fighting machines, not romantic or dramatic leads, and the stereotypes don’t dissipate but merely evolve.

“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” was a breakthrough on this level. While all the characters were fighting machines, they also had complex sympathetic emotions and (oh, my god) the ability to have raunchy sex. Zhang Ziyi’s deflowering remains the most potent image of Asian sensuality to hit the American mainstream.

Sensual Asians have been around for a while, and Lucy Liu is only a recent incarnation of a species of Asian stereotypes known as the dragon lady. Her short stint on “Chicago” as a Hawaiian pineapple heiress (read: exotic Asian), was a stereotypical throwback, though her non-accented, aggressive character was progressive. But the difference in “Crouching Tiger” was that Zhang Ziyi was deflowered by a strapping Asian male.

Justin Lin takes that to a whole other level in “Better Luck,” showing a hornier, drunker side to what is believed to be the model minority. In fact, this is why Lin was attacked by critics who think a sexual, bad-boy, Asian American male is too threatening of a screen presence. In other words, they missed the kung fu, straight-laced frame around Asian Americans. I find the portrayal of the Asian American gangster not only refreshing but also realistic (I was asked to join the Black Dragons in high school).

The liberalization of minority portrayals is increasing, and it’s no longer weird to see Michael Clarke Duncan as the Kingpin in “Daredevil” or John Leguizamo as a European artist in “Moulin Rouge.” Look out for Russell Wong in the WB’s new show “The Black Sash” on Sunday nights. His character’s name is Tom Ballard, and the part is not “Asian.”