"Better Luck Tomorrow" is one of the better movies I remember seeing about rich high school seniors who are getting ready to graduate and who are starting to think about which college they want to go to.  This film has a nice original feel to it, thanks largely I think to the mostly Asian cast of actors.  I really like the story angle of this film which centers on a group of friends who start out as petty con artists and then get in way over their heads.  Also, kudos have to go to the director who has put together a film that moves and whirls around at a rapid pace while at the same time lets the audience learn a lot about the main characters.

      The main character of this story is Ben who is an excellent student and hopes to major in biology when he goes to college.  Unfortunately for Ben, he decides to pal around with a bunch of other over-achieving and excellent students who also happen to like to make money thru both immoral and illegal means.  Ben gets persuaded to come up with cheat-sheets for tests which the group then sells to other students.   What starts out as small-time cheating and con games become more and more dangerous when the crimes start to deal with robbery and drug dealing.  While Ben slowly becomes more active in the group's crimes, he also develops a strong crush on his biology lab partner Stephanie. 

      Unfortunately for Ben, Stephanie already has a steady boyfriend but their relationship problems will have dire consequences later in the story.  So, as the story unfolds, the question arises on what will come first, either this group of teenagers will grow up and stop their bad ways or they will endure an eventual but inevitable bad conclusion.

      Director Lin has created a fast-moving and dazzling film which also has a large cast of interesting characters.  The acting is all very good here, with all the characters having both many good qualities as well as many flaws.  The film shows how a basically good kid can make what appears to be small decisions which however escalates to much worse events, including murder.

      Another very interesting aspect to Better "Luck Tomorrow" is the absence of any parental guidance for these out-of-control kids.  It raises the question of whether these kids have become what they are due to their parents either not being around very much or just not involved in their children's lives.  It seems this group of affluent teens go about and do anything they please and are never involved with their families.

      So, in conclusion, this movie was a very pleasant surprise in that I wasn't really expecting it to be this good.  Almost everything about this film is top notch, from the captivating actors who play all the lead characters, to the dazzling cinematography, to the music soundtrack.  All this together combined to make a very fine film.  I have a feeling however that this film will be vastly overlooked and won't be seen by enough people... and that's a shame because this is one well made and entertaining film.