I will get right to the point by saying that Better Luck Tomorrow was the most messed up film that I have ever seen in my life. I will admit that some of the acting was good, but man that climax and ending was just messed up for me. To be fair though I don’t know if I could have made this better than it is now.

After the film ended some people may have heard me say, “That’s how the movie ends”?!

This film reminds me of another film by the name of American Hustle. The differences lie with the fact that this is based off of some true events, the mob is involved, and there were a lot of characters I didn’t like. The similarity with Better Luck Tomorrow is the fact that both films have a messed up storyline.

I wish there were more films that could depict Asian Americans, but not in a stereotypical negative way.

• Questionable about the time period this takes place in. I know that it’s in San Fransisco, but the year throws me off. The father, King Duk, says that it is the year of the rooster. However, looking it up on the internet says that the year of the rooster was in 1993 during the 90s. If the author revises the novel, then he should say that it’s the year of the sheep.
• The dreams in the book reminded me of the pieces by Zhi Lin from the Tacoma Art Museum. One particular event from the book that stood out was the fact that Donald realizes that there were no Chinese names mentioned in the history books about the American railroad.
• I found it interesting how the family and Arnold were going to Angel Island to fly the planes
• For those of you who don’t know Angel Island was just like Ellis Island. Except it was immigration for the west coast.

Donald Duk by Chin is a very good book that dives deep into the theme of identity. One graphic novel that this text is similar to is American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. It’s a very good graphic novel that covers three stories while keeping in tact with the identity theme.

The colors that Takucki Fuji used in his paintings brought out the mood very well.

I guess his paintings also acted as a diary because he was showing what was happening inside of the relocation camp.

Does anybody know what the little clay models represented? There were two that looked like faces while the others were just tiny little animals or turtles.

• Zhi Lin had 4 paintings that stood out to me
  • all were mixed-media painting with woodblock printing and Chinese colors on Chinese paper
  • each one represented the conditions or places the Chinese migrants were working in.
  • the winter one had this dread and frightening feel to it
• the black and white paintings were nice as well
  • I think Zhi Lin chose the right colors to paint what the Chinese

I’m not sure if anyone saw this, but at the art museum there was an exhibit next to the front desk. In that room there were two paintings that depicted asian artifacts from a Westerner’s point of view. I thought it was really interesting.