OC Register: Justin Lin's 'Luck'

04/06/2003

Justin Lin's 'Luck'
The O.C. native has come a long way from Orangeview Junior High geek to director of a film with a lot of buzz.
By BARRY KOLTNOW
The Orange County Register

At Orangeview Junior High in Anaheim, Justin Lin was a full-fledged, paid-up member of the "geek squad."

The seventh-grade honors student, an immigrant from Taiwan and one of only a handful of Asian-American students in the school, wanted nothing more than to fit in.

"I wanted to be an Eagle Scout," he recalled recently in his publicist's office in Los Angeles. "I wanted to be anything American."

Well, those geek days are over, and Lin, 31, doesn't worry about fitting in anymore.

In fact, the hot young director is fitting in just fine in Hollywood these days, with a controversial new film opening Friday ("Better Luck Tomorrow") and a second directing assignment already set with a major studio.

Like "Better Luck Tomorrow," that next film, "The Tenth Justice," will be co-written by Lin, Ernesto Foronda and Fabian Marquez.

Foronda, a Filipino-American, is a former Orange County resident whom Lin met at film school. Marquez, who was the first member of his Argentine family born in the United States, is a childhood friend of Lin's, and a fellow member of the geek squad.

"I was on the welcoming committee for the honors program," Marquez said, "and I personally greeted Justin when he came to the school.

"The members of the welcoming committee all wore Members Only jackets, and we were definitely geeks."

Lin and Marquez became instant friends, and one activity they did together was go to the movies.

"We went to a lot of movies together, starting with 'Big Trouble in Little China,' but never realized that we both secretly harbored dreams of making movies," Marquez said. "We didn't find that out until years later."

They did not attend the same high schools (Marquez went to Western, Lin to Cypress High School), but they kept in touch, even after Marquez enrolled in the film-studies program at the University of California, Irvine, and Lin ended up at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in film directing.

Lin co-wrote and directed a feature film while still in school ("Shopping for Fangs") and also started working on a short-film thesis about a group of bright, suburban Asian-American kids experimenting with drugs and petty crime, and eventually getting caught in a web of violence.

He said he was inspired to write his thesis because of the rash of school shootings around the country. The short film became "Better Luck Tomorrow" when Lin realized that the concept was big enough to expand into a feature-length movie.

He teamed with Foronda, and they later brought in Marquez, who was an experienced screenplay writer and knowledgeable in the workings of the movie industry from his job in the post-production department at New Line Cinema.

After dozens of drafts, the script was ready to shoot, but Lin and his Orange County buddies had no money to shoot with.

Eventually, Lin maxed out 10 credit cards, rifled his own savings and literally begged investors for money. At one point, he had a chance meeting in Las Vegas with rapper MC Hammer, who apparently liked Lin's movie idea and sent him a check for $5,000.

Throughout the process, Lin said, he stuck to his principles.

"I had investors who said they'd give me the money if I made my characters white. I had investors who wanted me to make my characters Latino or black. "Someone even offered me money if I cast Macaulay Culkin in the lead role."

Lin resisted those offers, found other investors and made his movie for about $250,000. Most of his actors worked for nothing, or next to nothing, and so did the crew. Much of the equipment was borrowed.

"The cast and crew slept on the floor of my parent's home, and we used free locations whenever we could (most of the movie was filmed in Orange County). That's why I've worked so hard to promote the film; I owe it to all the people who believed in it."

Once the film was completed, Lin waited to hear from the film festivals, the best way for an independent film to be seen. Even with the exposure at a film festival, only a few movies get acquired for distribution.

"Two days before Thanksgiving in 2001, I was literally eating oatmeal for dinner because I had no money left for food," the director said. "Then, the phone rang, and my life changed overnight."

The phone call was to inform Lin that his film had been selected to be shown in competition at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2002. The next day, the official announcement was made in the entertainment industry trade newspapers and Lin said his phone "hasn't stopped ringing yet" from agents, managers, producers and studios.

The film, which was bought by MTV Films, drew some heat at Sundance for its portrayal of Asian-Americans in what some felt was a negative light. But Lin and Marquez were quick to defend their film.

"I'm elated that there is any response to the film," Marquez said. "I love that some people hate it, and I love that some people love it. Both emotions lead to dialogue, and I embrace any movie that people are talking about."

Lin emphasized that "Better Luck Tomorrow" is not in any way his revenge for growing up in a mostly white area like Orange County. In fact, he insisted that the movie is not really about Orange County at all.

"Until I got to junior high school, I had never met or even seen another Asian- American family in Orange County," Lin said. "I'm not telling you that so you'll feel sorry for me. I just mean that it gave me an interesting perspective.

"I had to learn English after I moved here at 9, and then I worked in my parents' fish and chips restaurant in Anaheim for years. We literally were the only foreigners in our neighborhood, and that helps to give you the perspective of being a little out of the mainstream.

"Now, there is a huge ethnic population in Orange County, and the Asian-American kids there grow up with a whole different perspective. They can identify with each other, and they seem to be a little more comfortable with who they are.

"But growing up is still difficult, not only for them, but for all kids. That's what I'm trying to show in this movie, and that's why Orange County is never mentioned and why the characters' Asian roots is almost an afterthought. This is a movie about any kid growing up in any suburb in America.

"It's a film that doesn't offer a lot of answers," he added, "but it does ask a lot of questions."