Making Their Own Luck

Guerrilla marketeers hit the streets to push a new film about Asian-American high schoolers gone bad

A A A Comments By Bernice Yeung Wednesday, Apr 9 2003

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Courtesy of MTV Films

Justin Lin's characters spend more time in the poolroom than the schoolroom.

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Quan Phung, vice president of comedy development at Fox Broadcasting, says the grass-roots strategy could yield dividends, even as he cautions about placing too much emphasis on a single movie. "I hate to put that much pressure on the film because it's the only one out there," Phung says. "But I think the guerrilla marketing is really smart. Hollywood is still trying to figure out ways to tap into this market. Part of what filmmakers have to do is show Hollywood that there is an untapped market that will go and support a product that speaks to them. Guerrilla marketing is a way of doing that, and quite frankly, it's one of the few ways that the community can support a film."

But some film critics say the political and social implications of the movie shouldn't overshadow its artistic merits. "[This film] is important because it's a film by an Asian-American director that has a chance to break through to the mainstream, so if people don't support it, then it won't," says B. Ruby Rich, a Berkeley-based reviewer who selected Better Luck Tomorrow for inclusion in the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival. "It's also important because Justin Lin is an extremely talented director and if people go to see his film, then he'll be able to make more," adds Rich. "And finally, it's a good movie that people ought to see. It's a great spin on a genre we thought we knew -- the high school film. But it finally puts race in the mix."