EXCLUSIVE: Writer-director Jessica Liu has set cast for her debut feature, the dark comedy Better Life. Those atop the call sheet are Randall Park (Always Be My Maybe), Ming-Na Wen (The Mandalorian), Joel Kim Booster (Fire Island), Margaret Cho (Fire Island), Anirudh Pisharody (Never Have I Ever), and yao (Sinners).
Based on Liu’s proof-of-concept short of the same name, which played numerous Oscar-qualifying festivals, Better Life is said to mix dark satire and grounded sci-fi elements in an AAPI-centered story about ambition, family, and identity. When a groundbreaking medical procedure promises to turn slackers into overachievers, an aging father sees it as his last chance to achieve the American Dream…through his unemployed adult daughter.
Liu based the film on experiences with her immigrant father and adapted it as a feature under the mentorship with Park, which whom she connected through the Alliance of Women Directors. Annie Huang will produce alongside Samantha Gao (Smoking Tigers), who also serves as line producer. The project is the rare one shooting in Los Angeles, under the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program, kicking off production in September.
Liu is a filmmaker who grew up straddling the cultural divide between Shanghai and the Bay Area. Her work has garnered recognition at Academy-qualifying film festivals like Cinequest, the San Francisco Independent Film Festival, and Dances with Films, and is available for streaming on Amazon Prime and the Oscar-supported OTV platform. Her rom-com feature, Ming & the Banana, earned a spot in the second round of Sundance’s Development Track. Other accolades include being selected for the Alliance of Women Directors’ 2024 Rising Director Fellowship, as well as the 2024 Satellite Collective Fellowship, 2023 Frieze LA Fellow with Endeavor Content, and Ghetto Film School. She is currently unrepped.
Park is represented by Artists First and UTA; Wen by Innovative Artist and Link Entertainment; Booster by WME, Omnipop Talent Group, and Felker Toczek Suddleson; Cho by WME, manager Sarah Martin, and Fox Rothschild LLP; Pisharody by TalentWorks and ColorCreative; and yao by Stewart Talent, Luber Roklin, and Peikoff Mahan.