Justin Lin

Director

• Born: October 1, 1971
• Birthplace: Taipei, Taiwan

Contribution: Justin Lin is a film and television director best known for his films Better Luck Tomorrow (2002),Star Trek Beyond (2016), and his installments in the Fast and the Furious series.

Background

Justin Lin was born in October 1971 in Taipei, Taiwan. When he was eight years old, his family moved to Buena Park in Southern California. Lin initially attended the University of California, San Diego, but after two years he transferred to the School of Theater, Film and Television at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in film directing.

At college, Lin became friends with fellow film student Quentin Lee. While they were still students, the two cowrote and codirected a ninety-minute film called Shopping for Fangs (1997). The film contains two parallel stories about Asian Americans living in Southern California and has since become a cult classic.

Career

Following Shopping for Fangs, Lin began work as a production coordinator at the Media Arts Center for the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. There, he produced several short documentaries concerning Asian American history. One of his productions for the museum was J-Town Rhapsody (1999), an eight-screen video installation that explored the shifting identity of Japanese Americans. The installation won numerous accolades, including the Crystal Communicator Award of Excellence.

For his next project, Better Luck Tomorrow (2002), Lin spent years revising and refining the script. But when he was ready to begin shooting, he lacked the necessary funds. After burning through his own savings and maxing out nearly a dozen credit cards, Lin was about to abandon the project when he had a chance meeting in Las Vegas with MC Hammer, who read the script and afterward sent Lin a check to help put it into production. To help further cut costs, the film manufacturer Eastman Kodak Company donated several thousand feet of film for Lin to shoot with.

Better Luck Tomorrow, which tells the story of a group of Asian American high school seniors who turn to petty crime, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. Popular film critic Roger Ebert helped create positive buzz about the film, which was purchased by MTV for their film-distribution company, MTV Films. The film earned more than three million dollars at the box office. In 2002, the trade magazine Variety included Lin in its list of ten young directors to watch.

The success of Better Luck Tomorrow led Lin to a high-profile job directing the drama Annapolis (2006), about a man enrolled in the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The film, which was not endorsed by the US Navy, failed at the box office and was given mainly poor reviews.

Despite the weak reception of Annapolis, Lin was hired to direct The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006). It was the third film in the Fast and the Furious film series, which focuses on a group of illegal street racers. Lin initially turned down the offer to direct Tokyo Drift because the original script was so rife with stereotypes about Japanese people and the city of Tokyo. When the studio gave him a license to rework the script, Lin accepted the offer. Aside from the car racing that is the focus of the film, Lin believed it was important to authentically portray the intricacies of teenage life and to resist stereotypes about Asian people.

Lin’s next film, the satirical documentary Finishing the Game: The Search for a New Bruce Lee (2007), was a much more scaled-down production than Tokyo Drift. The mockumentary film humorously looks at the production of martial artist Bruce Lee’s unfinished final film, Game of Death (1978), and the search for a double to replace Lee following his death in 1973. Critics generally gave the film poor reviews after it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Lin returned to the Fast and the Furious franchise with Fast & Furious (2009). This installment received mixed reviews but earned a worldwide gross of more than $360 million. Lin then turned his attention to the small screen to direct three episodes of the NBC sitcom Community, in 2009 and 2010, before taking on the fifth and sixth installments of the Fast and the Furious franchise. Fast Five (2011) exceeded its predecessor financially and received generally positive reviews. The follow-up, Fast & Furious 6 (2013), was the most financially successful movie in the series to date, with a worldwide gross of more than $785 million.

Lin directed and produced 2016's Star Trek: Beyond, the last film in the franchise's modern trilogy. Beyond was critically acclaimed, and grossed a worldwide total of more than $343 million.

In addition to his work directing and producing films, Lin has also worked on several successful television series in the late 2000s through the 2010s. These include three episodes of Community (2009–10), Scorpion (2014–18), S.W.A.T. (2017–19), Warrior (2019), and a reboot of Magnum P.I. (2018–20).

In late 2018, Lin and his production company, Perfect Storm Entertainment, signed an exclusive, multiyear deal with Apple to develop, produce, and direct television series. Lin and Perfect Storm had previously had a similar deal with Sony.

Impact

Thanks to the widely successful Fast and the Furious franchise, Lin has emerged as one of Hollywood’s top action directors. Even within a franchise known for its car chases and big-budget thrills, Lin made a point of exploring the racial identities of his films’ characters and avoiding common stereotypes of Asians and Asian Americans. His films have grossed more than two billion dollars worldwide.

Personal Life

Lin and his wife live in Los Angeles, California.

Principal Works

Shopping for Fangs, 1997

Better Luck Tomorrow, 2002

Annapolis, 2006

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, 2006

Finishing the Game: The Search for a New Bruce Lee, 2007

Fast & Furious, 2009

Fast Five, 2011

Fast & Furious 6, 2013

Star Trek Beyond, 2016

Bibliography

Accomando, Beth. “Indie Directors Going Mainstream.” KPBS San Diego. KPBS Public Broadcasting, 17 Apr. 2009. Web. 27 Aug. 2013.

“Director Justin Lin Shifts the Identity of Fast & Furious.” National Public Radio. NPR, 23 May 2013. Web. 27 Aug. 2013.

Foundas, Scott. “Justin Lin: Furious Filmmaker Finds Even Better Luck Tomorrow.” Variety. Variety Media, 1 May 2013. Web. 27 Aug. 2013.

Katayama, Lisa. “Justin Lin: I Wouldn’t Be Here If It Wasn’t for MC Hammer.” Wired. Condé Nast, 20 Mar. 2007. Web. 27 Aug. 2013.

Lin, Justin. “Fast and Furious 6 Director Justin Lin on Linking Stories and Designing Ever-Larger Spectacle.” Interview by Germain Lussier. SlashFilm. SlashFilm, 24 May 2013. Web. 27 Aug. 2013.

Petski, Denise. “Justin Lin Inks Overall TV Deal with Apple.” Deadline, 17 Dec. 2018, deadline.com/2018/12/justin-lin-overall-deal-apple-1202521419/. Accessed 27 Dec. 2019.