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Better Luck Tomorrow

Better Luck Tomorrow

Crime · Drama · Romance · 2003

A group of over-achieving Asian-American high school seniors enjoy a power trip when they dip into extra-curricular criminal activities.

Movie details

Better Luck Tomorrow

“Never underestimate an overachiever.”

2003 Crime · Drama · Romance 1h 41m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.0 / 10

11.1K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

81 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

67 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.2 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A group of over-achieving Asian-American high school seniors enjoy a power trip when they dip into extra-curricular criminal activities.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Better Luck Tomorrow?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Justin Lin

Written by

Ernesto Foronda · Justin Lin · Fabian Marquez

Parry Shen

Parry Shen

Ben Manibag

Jason Tobin

Jason Tobin

Virgil Hu

Sung Kang

Sung Kang

Han Lue

Karin Anna Cheung

Karin Anna Cheung

Stephanie Vandergosh

Roger Fan

Roger Fan

Daric Loo

Jerry Mathers

Jerry Mathers

Biology Teacher

John Cho

John Cho

Steve Choe

Court is in session

Put Better Luck Tomorrow on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Adrenaline Seeker

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.