Spa Night

Like many first generation immigrants, David Cho serves as the intermediary between his parents’ insular Koreatown life in Los Angeles and the frenetic landscape of the city. When the family restaurant is forced to close, the balance of the household is threatened and tension mounts at home. In an unfamiliar twist on more familiar immigrant stories, David does not accept his parents’ dreams for him to pursue an education and instead decides to help his family make ends meet by secretly taking a job at a Korean spa. There, David finds himself suddenly exposed to the clash between traditional Korean culture and of the underground world of gay hook-ups.

In Spa Night, Andrew Ahn directs a family story, exploring the elusiveness of personal identity and relationship to family traditions in the contemporary world.