Better Luck Tomorrow

This marks the first appearance of the character "Han" on film, before Justin Lin introduced him in the "Fast & Furious" series with The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006). Although this film is not officially part of the series, the Han from this movie is a chainsmoker, and in the Fast & Furious series, he constantly eats chips due to kicking his smoking habit, so it is meant to be the same character.

According to an April 2003 NPR radio interview with Elvis Mitchell, Justin Lin's production company was on the verge of folding unless he could secure a certain amount of funding. Lin had essentially resigned himself to failure; but on a whim called a celebrity he had met once in Las Vegas. Lin got a call the day before the deadline from the celeb saying that he had read the script and wanted to provide some backing. Two hours later, the new investor had wired Lin the money and saved the production. The celebrity: M.C. Hammer.

During a Q&A after the screening at Sundance, one audience member asked the filmmakers if they thought they were being irresponsible by portraying Asian-Americans negatively. Renowned film critic Roger Ebert stood up and shouted at the man that Asian-Americans can make whatever films they want, about whoever they want, and do not have any obligation to represent their people.

The film was financed with credit cards and with money raised independently by the filmmakers. The actors deferred their salaries.

In a February 2016 interview with the New York Times, Justin Lin recalled than when he was struggling to arrange financing for Better Luck Tomorrow, he had one potential investor who offered Lin $1 million, but only on the condition that the movie had to have Macaulay Culkin in the lead. Lin said, "If I would have said yes, I would have gotten $1 million and I would have gotten to make the movie with a white cast, but it didn't interest me."