ABOUT THE CAST
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PARRY SHEN (Ben) hails from Queens, NYC, and graduated from SUNY Buffalo. After interning on the business side of the entertainment industry with Marvel Comics and HBO, Shen decided to exit the humdrum business world after graduation and set out to sunny California to find work in front of the camera. Parry Shen was seen recently in a lead role in Columbia Pictures/Revolution Studios hit comedy, The New Guy and has appeared in the films Starship Troopers and Shrieker. His television credits include The King of Queens, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Party of Five, Suddenly Susan and Caroline in the City.
When he is not in front of the camera, Parry is sharing his skills teaching film classes to high school students in Los Angeles. Shen recently guest lectured alongside fellow industry alums James Foley (Glengarry Glen Ross) and Peter Riegert (Traffic) to Drama and Media Studies students at his alma mater, SUNY Buffalo. In fall 2003, he will be producing his own screenplay, which made the top 250 out of 7,000 entries in Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's projectgreenlight. com .
JASON TOBIN (Virgil) was born in Hong Kong and also lived in the United Kingdom and Philippines before moving to Los Angeles to study acting. Jason has appeared in numerous national commercials for Sega, Zima, Coke, Levi's and Surge and TV shows such as Nash Bridges, The Division, The Huntress and The King Of Queens. His film credits include Beverly Hills Ninja and Yellow.
SUNG KANG (Han), originally from Gainesville Georgia, migrated to the West Coast where he met up with the Friends and Artist Theater Ensemble which eventually lead to TV and film roles. Sung has guest and co-starred on award winning shows including The Shield, NYPD Blue, Felicity, and Martial Law. His film credits include Pearl Harbor, Mystery Men and Denzel Washington's acclaimed Antwoine Fisher.
ROGER FAN (Daric), with a background in theatre, has performed various classic and contemporary stage productions in London, Ireland, and the United States. His most recent theatre credits include Lettice & Lovage, Terminus Americana, Texas and Performance Anxiety. Roger made his feature film debut in New Line Cinema's Rush Hour, and starred as Chris Kattan's (of Saturday Night Live) FBI partner in the Disney/Touchstone comedy, Corky Romano. He produced and starred in the Sundance Film Festival fave short The Quest For Length, and will be seen in an upcoming Farrelly Brothers film. Roger is hard at worked gearing up for his next self-producing project.
JOHN CHO (Steve) began acting while studying English literature at the University of California at Berkeley. His first professional show was The Woman Warrior, produced first by the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, then the Huntington Theatres in Boston, MA and finally the James Doolittle Theatre in Los Angeles.
John's film credits include: American Pie 2, Down to Earth, Evolution, Pavilion of Women, American Pie, American Beauty, Delivering Milo, The Tiger Woods Story, The Flinstones: Viva Rock Vegas, Wag the Dog, Bowfinger, Yellow, and Shopping for Fangs. Television credits include Charmed, Felicity, The Magnificent Seven, Traffic, Boston Common, The Jeff Foxworthy Show, USA High, and V. I. P. John will be seen in the upcoming American Pie 3.
KARIN ANNA CHEUNG (Stephanie) is a graduate from Cal State Northridge with a degree in art and has been pursuing music, playing in different bands until breaking into a fast-growing solo career. Her acting career began after studying under Glen Chin at the East West Players Conservatory in Los Angeles. Karin has toured with the Sundance Children's Theater. Karin continues to wow audiences with her songwriting talent and performs her own compositions throughout Los Angeles. Better Luck Tomorrow marks Karin's debut film role.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
JUSTIN LIN (Writer/Director/Producer/Editor) holds a BA and MFA in film directing from the UCLA School of Film and Television. He has produced and directed numerous award-winning short films, documentaries and digital movies. Aside from directing, he has been the director of photography on several short films and a recent low-budget feature. Lin co-wrote, directed and edited the critically-acclaimed feature film Shopping for Fangs, which screened internationally in numerous festivals including the Palm Springs International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival. As the Production Coordinator of the Media Arts Center for the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, Lin produced, directed and edited several multi-media projects and educational television pilots. J-Town Rhapsody, an eight-screen video installation, garnered several awards including the Crystal Communicator Award of Excellence and the short documentary, Passing Through, aired earlier on PBS. Variety named Justin one of its directors to watch for 2002. Currently, he is involved as a director/writer on the upcoming film Tenth Justice for 20th Century Fox, and a project for HBO Films. Lin has founded his own production company called TRAILING JOHNSON PRODUCTIONS and is reviewing potential new projects for development, and is working on a documentary about a Las Vegas lounge act called Spotlighting.
ERNESTO M. FORONDA (Writer/Producer/Music Supervisor) was born in the Philippines, and moved to Southern California, receiving his BA from the UCLA School of Film and Television and MFA at Columbia University, Graduate Film Division. His film and video works have been screened internationally including the San Francisco Asian American Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Los Angeles, Walter Reade Theater / Film Society of Lincoln Center, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Recently, Ernesto M. Foronda has been a finalist for the King Hu Award (Most Promising Filmmaker) at the Los Angeles Asian American Film Festival and received the Grand Marnier Fellowship for Video from the Film Society of Lincoln Center. He is also featured in an upcoming anthology, ASIAN AMERICAN SCREEN CULTURES, due out from Duke University Press in the end of 2000. Foronda is currently co-writing with Lin on Tenth Justice for 20th Century Fox, and is penning other projects that are in development.
JULIE ASATO (Producer) was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She holds an MS in museum education from Bank Street College of Education in New York. She has worked at the Brooklyn Children's Museum, the Museum of Chinese in the Americas and the Japanese American National Museum.
Julie has worked at the Japanese American National Museum's Media Arts Center where she has produced two award winning media pieces. She has produced Crossover, a documentary on the Japanese American basketball leagues for an exhibition at the Museum. She has also created and produced Interactions, a pilot for an educational series funded by a major grant from the Civil Liberties grant program. Better Luck Tomorrow is her first feature film. Asato is currently the President of Production for Trailing Johnson Films and is looking at a number of independent projects as well as a producing the documentary, Spotlighting, with Lin.
FABIAN MARQUEZ (Writer/Post Production Supervisor), after graduating from UC Irvine's Film Studies program, fled his native Orange County, California to pursue a career in Post Production at Fine Line Features. There, he worked on such films as The Sweet Hereafter, Tumbleweeds and Before Night Falls, honing the skills he would eventually bring to Better Luck Tomorrow. Wearing the additional hat of co-writer, Fabian is proud to list Better Luck Tomorrow as his first produced screenplay. He is currently co-writing with Lin on Tenth Justice for 20th Century Fox, and his short film Johnny Flynton was recently nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Short Film Live Action.
PATRICE LUCIEN COCHET (Director of Photography), raised and "aged" in Bordeaux, France, studied photography, electronics and computer engineering before moving to the US. He received his MFA in cinematography from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Patrice is currently continuing his work with numerous independent filmmakers.
CURTIS CHOY (C. A. S. /Production Sound Mixer) joins the production team of Better Luck Tomorrow with years of experience as production sound mixer for independent and PBS documentaries, commercials and feature films. He has previously served as a camera and editing technician, newsfilm cameraman, camera assistant and boom operator. Most notably, Curtis is an award-winning producer/director of such independent films as The Fall of the I-Hotel and Dupont Guy: The Schiz of Grant Avenue. Some of his sound credits include Three Seasons, Joy Luck Club, Yellow, Catfish in Black Bean Sauce, Eat a Bowl of Tea, and Chan Is Missing. He is currently in production on a documentary feature in Northern California.
