'TOMORROW'S' SPECIAL TASK THE MAKERS OF THE FILM KNOWN AS 'BLT' HOPE TO TAKE A BITE OUT OF MOVIE MARKET SHARE FOR ASIAN-AMERICANS.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

Filmmaker Justin Lin recently sat in on a marketing meeting for his dark comedy ``Better Luck Tomorrow.'' While studio executives pondered how to sell Lin's smart, stereotype-busting film, he spied a pie chart representing moviegoers. African-Americans, whites and Latinos all had pieces of the pie. Asian-Americans were conspicuously absent.

``They told me that they know Asian-Americans exist and they know that they go to the movies but that their spending habits are exactly the same as middle-class whites, so they consider them Caucasians,'' Lin says. ``And yeah, that's messed up. But the thing is, there's never been a film to track Asian-American spending habits. So we're hoping this movie will get us a slice of the pie.''

It's a big burden for a small film. ``Better Luck Tomorrow'' cost $250,000 and Lin initially bankrolled the project by spending his savings and maxing out 10 credit cards. (Even though Lin paid the cards off, he says his credit rating is shot.) The movie premiered last year at Sundance to great reviews and heated controversy, both of which were plentiful at a Q&A session following the film.

What really got people going was a comment from an older white man who tore into Lin, asking how he could make such a ``bleak, negative, amoral film'' and criticizing him for portraying Asian-Americans in a negative light.

Thinking about that today, Lin, a Taiwanese immigrant who grew up in Anaheim, smiles and says he honestly appreciates the comments even if he thinks they were wrong-headed.

``People complain, 'Don't group us in, don't label us. We don't want to be the flawless minority,' '' Lin says. ``But when push comes to shove, they do want the characters to be flawless. And to me, it's not about seeing flawless people. That's not interesting. And it's as much of a caricature for Asian-Americans as the bucktoothed waiter. Any time I do see people who are flawed, who are three-dimensional, who are human beings, to me, that's positive.''

By that logic, ``Better Luck Tomorrow'' is the year's most positive movie. Taking place at a high school in an upscale Orange County community, ``BLT'' (the acronym the cast and crew use for the film) follows a group of overachieving and ambitious students who gradually mix petty felonies with their club activities and community service. Before they know it, they've turned their search for identity into a pursuit of the gangsta high life as glorified by the hip-hop artists shown on MTV.

Interestingly enough, MTV's film division bought ``BLT'' at Sundance last year. Known for developing its own slate, ``BLT'' is the first film MTV has ever purchased. Lin went with them because they offered him final cut as well the marketing muscle the film needs to connect with its 18- to 34-year-old target audience.

``The great thing about this movie is that this is a unique perspective that we haven't seen before,'' says Michael Cole, vice president of MTV Films. ``At the same time, it's a universal story. We're hoping to blow the door open.''

While MTV has been supportive and enthusiastic, they're not exactly using a battering ram to blow open that door. ``BLT'' opened Friday in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. This Friday, the film goes to 12 other cities. After that, it's all about the numbers. It will expand only if it's selling out theaters.

So far, so good. The film grossed nearly $400,000 on 13 screens in its opening weekend, averaging nearly $30,000 per screen. Paramount Classics marketing chief David Dinerstein said that initial exit polls showed Asian-Americans making up 60 percent of the audience.

The movie's young cast members are doing their part to boost the film's fortunes. Leads Parry Shen, Roger Fan, John Cho and California State University, Northridge, graduate Karin Anna Cheung have fanned out across the country, drumming up support. Fan spent a day recently in New York, handing out buttons and postcards in Times Square and plastering posters wherever he could find empty space.

Shen, an Agoura Hills resident who teaches drama at a prep school in Ojai, has written letters to clubs at colleges in every city ``BLT'' is playing and has sent mass e-mails to Asian-American groups across the country.

``When we were making the movie, we worked as grips and in craft services when we weren't acting,'' Shen says. ``This is just an extension of that. No job should be too big or small. A lot of things have been aligning for the film to get where it is and it would be a huge shame to come so close and have it fall on its face because people didn't know about it.''

Or, Cho adds, if people got the wrong idea about the movie from seeing its all-Asian cast on the movie poster.

``It's a universal movie that I think everyone can relate to,'' Cho says. ``You don't have to be Asian-American to get it. I think that's one of its great achievements.''

Says Shen: ``People assume it's an Asian-American movie and that's probably the biggest challenge for us. That's what scared a lot of people who thought about buying the movie; they worried that audiences would feel out of the loop. Personally, I hate going to a movie where it's all inside jokes and I'm the only one in the theater not laughing. I don't think that's the case here.''

But while the cast and filmmakers are careful to tout ``BLT'' as having broad appeal, they also recognize that the film represents a tremendous opportunity both for themselves and Asian-American audiences. On the strength of the movie, Lin has projects going with 20th Century Fox, independent producer Christine Vachon and Spike Lee's production company, 40 Acres & a Mule. He is also developing a romantic comedy and another dark comedy for Asian-American ensembles.

The actors haven't been as fortunate yet. Shen says reps at talent agencies like ICM and CAA are waiting to see how much money ``BLT'' makes before committing themselves to Asian-American actors.

``It's like, 'Is this a formula we can jump off and make some cash on?' '' Shen says. ``The movie is such an anomaly that no one knows what to do with us yet.''

Lin was told at his marketing meeting that he needed 10 percent of Asian-Americans to go to his movie in order for the pie chart to be redrawn and include them. With roughly 14 million Asian-Americans in the United States, that translates into 1.4 million people who need to buy tickets.

``The only way we're going to build Asian-American cinema in the United States is if people support the movies,'' Lin says. ``The industry is all about money. And if they see money with Asian-American films, then more will be made. If not, they'll make more movies with talking kangaroos.''

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) ``Better Luck Tomorrow'' Parry Shen, left, Karin Anna Cheung, Sung Kang, John Cho and writer-director Justin Lin.

(2) Sung Kang, left, Jason Tobin and Parry Shen star in ``Better Luck Tomorrow,'' in which Asian-American high-school students aspire to be gangsters. The film had an impressive opening weekend in limited release.

(3) Justin Lin, left, writer and director of ``Better Luck Tomorrow,'' sits with his cast members: ``(A flawless person) is as much of a caricature for Asian-Americans as the bucktoothed waiter.''

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News