Better Luck Tomorrow (probably has spoilers)

[PoignantSod]

Wow, just saw the movie tonight. I thought it was really excellent (acting was incredible, felt like a documentary without the bad camera feel, characters are engaging) but there was probably some deep stuff in there that I missed the first time around. Feel free to post any other questions. But now, for the spoiler questions:

SPOILER:

1. Why/what is the significance of Stephanie driving a new car at the end?
2. Why did Ben beat Steve with a baseball bat? Could it really have just been over Stephanie?
3. Are their names at all signifcant? I mean Vergil is a pretty uncommon name, but I did not get the allusion to the Roman (if it exists).
4. Was the whole basketball-shooting thing symbolic of anything?

I don't know, might be overanalyzing it, but any answers to the questions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Tars Tarkas]

SPOILER:

1. Nothing, just a grad present IIRC
2. Ben was on a moral downward spiral since the beginning of the movie. Life seemed as a game, and he thought his friends were in trouble. Stephanie just pushed him over the edge.
3. Virgil=Virgin his name was a joke.
4. No, just that he was trying to put his life together at the end (and earlier was just a point in showing he was an over acheiver)

Stephanie and Ben at the end was just to show how he had finally gotten to a point in his life that wasn't panned out and he didn't know what would be next. I thought it was tacked on and a given, i would have ended the film with MILF-guy saying to Ben "See you tomorrow" ominously.

And no one responded to my thread on this two weeks ago. So BOOOO to the collective movie fans of the SDMB.

[Geek Mecha]

We saw it a week ago. You shoulda waited, Tars.

I liked that the filmmakers didn't tell you how things worked out. There was no happy, sad, just, "right", or "wrong" ending. What happened next was left to your imagination.

WRT question 3-- It's not unusual for Asian kids (especially those whose parents weren't born in America) to have old or uncommon names. I know some of my Chinese friends' parents named their kids after television or movie characters from 25+ years ago. Some got their names from random people who had American names that the parents liked. I had quite a few classmates with uncommon names.

I didn't get the feeling there was potentially significant symbolism to his name, but then again, I'm uncultured swine.

[Tars Tarkas]

i WOULD have been able to ask the director myself, but the three showings he was going to for a Q and A session got bought out by some Asian group i never heard of.

[Gozu Tashoya]

The yakuza?

And I don't know when you started your thread, Tars, but I think your city was, for obvious reasons, one of the "advanced release" cities, 'cause it didn't come out here in Washington until last week. (I did see reviews, ads, etc., online for at least a week or two previous.)

SPOILER:

1)
If you really want there to be significance to the new car, you can always say that it was symbolic of:
a) Her new choice of boyfriend. (Because, let's face it, her relationship with Steve just wasn't going to work out. )
b) Means by which she could leave the town they were from - don't know if she saw college as "a way out" the way the guys did, but escape was a theme regardless.
c) The "I buy my kids expensive stuff to make up for ignoring them" school of parenting, perhaps? I don't remember if her parents were supposed to be good parents or not, but as all their parents were noticeably absent, you can probably make the argument if you wanted to.

2) No. Like Tars said, his life was becoming unrecognizable and he was going to pop sooner or later.

4) Yes. His dedication, performance, motivation, and possibly dress (I forget if his "basketball outfit" ever changed) was vaguely reflective of the events in his life.

[Peg]

Regarding Question #3: It's all a lot simpler than you guys think.

I asked a friend of mine who is friends with the director. (Hearsay anyone?) MovieVirgil Hu is named after a real Virgil Hu, a friend of the director. Some of the scenes were also shot in Virgil's house, but I couldn't tell you which ones (I wouldn't, either, for the sake of privacy.) Same goes for the characters Steve Choe and Ben Manibog (which morphed into "Manibag" in the movie because, according to my friend, "Justin could never spell.")

That's all, folks.