Spa Night (2016)
November 18, 2022 2:10 PM - Subscribe
A closeted Korean-American teenager takes a job at a Korean spa to help his struggling family, only to discover an underground world of gay sex at the spa that both scares and excites him. Trailer.
I watched it! I thought it was understated and really pretty good. It was fun to see parts of Los Angeles that I know which rarely make it into films, especially in the context of regular people just trying to get by. The bilingual Korean/Spanish conversation early on was a great scene of something that's very real to LA and Ktown but somehow doesn't get represented on screen hardly ever. And I can't speak to the male experience, nor having immigrant parents, but I was an introvert who discovered I was gay post high school and was still a little afraid of how my religious parents would react, and David really managed to channel similar moments to things I experienced without ever speaking directly about it. I read on Wikipedia that the lead actor won an award for breakthrough performance at Sundance - I see why, though as I think about it, the actress who played David's mom also really carried the story forward.
Finally, that ending was painfully unresolved, but I don't think it could have been any other way. I think the director set out to do a specific thing in a small package and really nailed it.
posted by sigmagalator at 11:44 PM on January 2, 2023
Finally, that ending was painfully unresolved, but I don't think it could have been any other way. I think the director set out to do a specific thing in a small package and really nailed it.
posted by sigmagalator at 11:44 PM on January 2, 2023
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posted by sigmagalator at 12:17 PM on November 21, 2022