Spa Night (2016)
….. …………………………………………….
Spa Night Movie Review
Spa Night is a 2016 drama film directed by Andrew Ahn and starring Joe Seo. It’s a sporadically effective, but overly slow and flawed drama.
………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………..
A closeted Korean-American teenager follows his desires and finds more than he bargains for at a Korean spa. Andrew Ahn is a director who would go on to direct ‘Fire Island’ after this film, and although I really did not like that movie, I also found Spa Night to be a very flawed movie that had a strong concept, but problematic execution. His directing is the main issue here as the failed to emphasize on the most important elements of this story.
The bulk of this movie is devoted to the protagonist’s family life and I wished to have seen more of the focus on his sexuality. The family scenes uniformly worked, especially those that focused on the father’s alcoholism and the mother’s resilience, but still they overtook way too much screen time from the main story, which was always supposed to be him being closeted and how traditional upbringing negatively impacted his personal life.
There is that powerful scene at the end with self-harm that was brutally heartbreaking, but necessary to portray. The awkward scene with his boss at the spa was also quite effective. However, the sex scene was filmed very badly and there must have been a better way to film all of those spa scenes as they lacked the sensuality necessary for this type of imagery.
………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………..
Spa Night is solidly performed by Joe Seo, but his character lacked agency and development. We never quite got to see him properly fleshed out, which was a real shame as the movie hinged heavily on his story. The rest of the characters also did not fare much better, but thankfully they were solidly performed. The dialogue is realistic and the themes were interesting. The film felt quite authentic to the director’s own experiences and its portrayal of Koreatown in Los Angeles was definitely a welcome one, but Ahn should have directed this interesting story in a better and more engaging manner.
Spa Night is a story about Korean-Americans’ immigrant experience and how their tradition negatively impacts their personal lives. The movie was well performed, thematically interesting and featuring strong dialogue, but it was in desperate need of stronger character development, a brisker pace and a better focus throughout.
My Rating – 3.5
Results
