Well-intentioned, well-observed, well-received, but modest to a fault debut of writer/director Andrew Ahn. Semi-autobiographical? It reeks of a film-school graduation short stretched to meet entry qualifications on the fest-circuit. A character piece, it follows a Korean family of three, stuck in lives of quiet desperation in L.A. after their Mom & Pop Korean restaurant goes bust. Mom quickly lands a job at another place, thanks to a Church connection, but Dad’s one-off gigs grow sparse and he starts to drink. Meanwhile the 18-yr-old son (alter-ego/heart of the film) visits a former church pal, now at USC, for a taste of college life. Out of his inner-world routine (running & SAT prep), he may be the tallest Korean around (two generations taller than his folks), but he comes up short socially with these immature college habitués. More important, coming up short at that pricey SAT prep course, he takes a part-time job at a Korean Spa where he zones out doing menial tasks and tries to subdue an interest in the non-Korean gay pickups going on. All this neatly done, if perhaps missing a bit of needed teen grit, mess & angst. Along with a lack of resolution that’s meant to ring true, but feels more like avoidance. Still, interesting for the L.A. Korean Community background and social networking.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Admittedly, not really on point, but for a warm/poignant family drama (elderly father, the well-off son who left home; mentally challenged brother) running a beat up Public Spa in China, Yang Zhang’s XI ZAO / SHOWER/’99 is a real find.
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