Trivia for
Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) More at IMDbPro »

• The first independent film to be picked up by MTV Films for distribution.
  
  
• The film was financed with credit cards and with money raised independently by the filmmakers. The actors deferred their salaries.
  
  
• Although some people thought that the film was inspired by the 1992 murder of Stuart Tay, an Asian-American youth who was killed by four of his peers on New Year's Eve in Orange County, California, filmmaker Justin Lin has stated that "at the very beginning of the writing process, [he] made a conscious decision not to base it on that, or any other, real event."
  
  
• According to an April 2003 NPR radio interview with Elvis Mitchell, Justin Lin's production company was on the verge of folding unless he could secure a certain amount of funding. Lin had essentially resigned himself to failure; but on a whim called a celebrity he had met once in Las Vegas. Lin got a call the day before the deadline from the celeb saying that he had read the script and wanted to provide some backing. Two hours later, the new investor had wired Lin the money and saved the production. The celebrity: MC Hammer.
  
  
• Original prints of the film's theatrical poster misspelled Parry Shen's name as "Perry Shen".
  
  
• Though not physically correct for any roles, producer/performer Anthony Begonia was encouraged to audition.
  
  

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