An Acclaimed 2002 Indie Crime Drama Is Actually Part Of The Fast And Furious Universe

The "Fast & Furious" franchise has taken quite the ride, growing from a modest "Point Break" riff to globe-trotting espionage, borderline superhero movies (with cars). Along the way, it left the laws of physics in the dust. There are currently 11 "Fast & Furious," the 10 mainline films plus the spin-off "Hobbs & Shaw" — or are there?

Director Justin Lin (who directed five of these eleven films) made himself a household name with 2002's "Better Luck Tomorrow." The film centers on four Asian-American high school students in Orange County, California: overachieving Ben (Parry Shen), his nerdy best friend Virgil (Jason Tobin), Virgil's cool cousin Han (Sung Kang), and valedictorian Daric (Roger Fan). Afflicted with ennui, the four begin committing petty crimes, which escalate to robbery and then murder — the victim is Steve (John Cho), boyfriend of Ben's crush Stephanie (Karin Anna Cheung).

The film was inspired by Lin's work as a youth basketball coach and a real-life 1992 crime, called the "Honor Roll Murder" by local paper The Orange County Register. Despite a tumultuous production (Lin claims he maxed out 10 credit cards to fund the shoot), "Better Luck Tomorrow" was a success — it made back its small budget many times over and earned positive reviews (Roger Ebert was a fan).

So, what's the connection with "Fast & Furious" besides Lin? It's Han. In a 2013 interview for Mandatory, conducted by /Film's William Bibbiani, Sung Kang confirmed that Han Lue in "Better Luck Tomorrow" is the same Han who later appears in "Fast & Furious" — "Justin and I always ... He wanted to keep the anthology going. He was always wondering where the characters go after high school."

In "Better Luck Tomorrow," Han is even introduced leaning on his car — a vintage red Ford Mustang — in a prescient glimpse of his future.

Lin and Kang's first "Fast & Furious" movie was "Tokyo Drift," the third installment released in 2006. Han serves as the street racing mentor to Sean Boswell (Lucas Black). Kang added that once Lin came on as director, he rewrote the existing script to feature Han.

"Originally the role was named 'Phoenix,' and it was an African-American character, but they cast Bow Wow as Twinkie and so they figured, 'Hey, we have this Phoenix character, and it's kind of a brooding guy who's an older brother for everybody,' and Justin presented it to the studio and said, 'What if he's an Asian-American?' They're like, 'Well, how can an Asian-American be cool like this?' So then he showed them 'Better Luck Tomorrow.'"

From the beginning, Han became a central character in "Fast & Furious" by accident. He dies two-thirds of the way through "Tokyo Drift" in a car crash. However, the film ends with Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) showing up in Tokyo, revealing he knew Han and challenging Sean to a race. This left a back door open for Han to show up in future "Fast" films — which, by extension, became "Tokyo Drift" prequels.

The timeline finally caught up in the post-credits scene for "Fast & Furious 6," which revealed Han was deliberately killed by Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham). His murder then became the driving force of "Furious 7." Then, in one of the most soap opera twists in "Fast" yet, Han showed up alive in "F9" (which also marked Lin's return after a hiatus on 7 and 8) and turned out to have faked his death.

Since Han is back for "Fast X" and beyond, will future films touch on his "Better Luck Tomorrow" backstory? I'd guess no. For one, Lin is out as director of "Fast X." Without his personal connection to "Better Luck Tomorrow," there's little incentive to draw from it. Since "Better Luck Tomorrow" was distributed by Paramount and "Fast & Furious" is a Universal property, there could be legal complications as well. Compared to "Fast," "Better Luck Tomorrow" is obscure, meaning references could throw off the audience.

If there was ever a time to reference "Better Luck Tomorrow," it probably would've been "Furious 7" — give Ben, Daric, and co. cameos at Han's funeral — but that didn't happen. There is one other link though. In "Tokyo Drift," Han's mechanic Earl is played by Jason Tobin. According to Kang's Mandatory interview, this was a nod to Virgil being Han's cousin in "Better Luck Tomorrow" and, apparently, one could even take Virgil/Earl as the same character.

Considering what "Fast" has become, looking back on "Better Luck Tomorrow" can be surreal. This grounded crime drama is apparently set in the same universe where Vin Diesel can all but fly and cyborg Idris Elba shouts, "I'm Black Superman!" Maybe it's for the best that the films stay only implicitly linked.

"Fast X" is in theaters on May 19, 2023. "Better Luck Tomorrow" is streaming on Starz.