DVD REVIEW . The Motel

by Chris   ⋅   February 14, 2007   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

Michael Kang’s The Motel, an adaptation of Ed Lin’s Waylaid, is a painfully funny take on adolescence and the inherent isolation felt by those undergoing puberty. It is the tale of a thirteen year-old boy, Ernest Chin, whose family runs and lives in a low rate motel along a New Jersey bypass road. Being that the motel offers “weekly, daily, and hourly rates”, Ernest sees more than his fair share of questionable human interactions. His overbearing mother chides him incessantly, his grandfather calls him fat, his younger sister has a knack for popping up at inopportune times, and his crush (two years his elder) sees him as nothing but a goofy little brother. Suffice it to say things are less than stellar for poor Ernest. But the arrival of the rock-star confident Sam Kim, a young man with a hot car, slick clothes, girls, and an undeniable “cool”, serves to shake up poor Ernest’s tedious existence. What follows is not quite an awakening (nothing in adolescence is that simple), but certainly exciting.

Being an independent Asian-American film, The Motel naturally will appeal to the Asian American audience, but its treatment of adolescent awkwardness is so real it will be enjoyed by anyone of any race. No one had a perfect adolescence. Everyone faced some sort of embarrassment and discomfort, criticism at the hands of ignorant bullies, the maddening actions of seemingly irrational parents, opportunistic “friends”, unreturned crushes, and endless stupidity. It is exactly these kinds of awkward moments that the film captures so well, and that anyone and everyone can relate to. Ernest’s mother deriding him for entering a contest and making only an “honorable mention,” his awkward attempt to put the moves on his friend turned crush, his curiosity at the real goings on behind the doors of rooms occupied by hourly hotel renters, the hurtful insults of his redneck bully, all these sequences have a painfully real and immediately relatable quality about them. They’re funny because we’ve all been there before, in some form or other.

That said, the Asian-American identity issue addressed by Michael Kang and his film is a strong one. Issues are addressed relating to racism from non-Asians, racism amongst Asians, the seemingly endless objectification of Asian women, gender and cultural stereotypes, and much more. Not being Asian-American, I don’t quite feel qualified to comment on the subject. Furthermore, my experience with discrimination and bias is (thankfully) fairly limited. I attribute this to my having been raised and schooled in relatively cosmopolitan, highly mixed environments since an early age. Blacks, Whites, Asians, Latinos, all were just schoolmates. Call me oblivious, but I didn’t really start noticing the irrational animosities harbored by some people until more recent years. However, regardless of my lack of authority on the issue, those raised by the film are nevertheless important. Keeping with the spirit of the overall story, The Motel doesn’t try to answer any of the questions it brings up, but instead attempts to open them for discussion, thereby avoids preachy pratfalls and assuring a more receptive audience.

Given The Motel’s poster’s proud proclamantion of being presented by the same producers who gave you Me and You and Everyone We Know, The Good Girl, and Chuck & Buck (three films Kris and I loved) its no surprise The Motel provides a surplus of bittersweet humor and highly memorable quotes (My own personal favorite, “You have a boner. That means you love me.”). Michael Kang’s film is as brilliantly melancholic and poignant as Miguel Arteta and Miranda July’s films, but manages to stand out from those peers due to the immediate identifiablity of adolescence. While those films were definitely about oddball others, this film is definitely about everyday people. That said, without solid direction and competent acting this could not have been maintained. Props must be given to Jeffrey Chyau and his pitch perfect performance as Ernest. In the many scenes requiring his character to show vulnerability or playfulness he never comes across as self conscious or artificial. Likewise Sung Kang did quite the surprising job as Sam Kim. Previously relegated to bad-boy heavies (Better Luck Tomorrow, Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift), he shows that he’s perfectly capable of taking on a meatier role. It’s worth noting that in order to ensure a real connection between the characters on screen Michael Kang had his actors go on field trips and assorted activities together (including bowling and amusement parks) so that they could establish a real relationship first. While the approach may seem unneccessary to some, it produced a number of subtleties in the performances of the more inexperienced actors that may not have manifested otherwise.

In closing, The Motel is quite the good film. Intelligent, funny, thought provoking comedy, heartfelt performances, and an overall nice feel. Really, you can’t go wrong.

The DVD

Palm Pictures presents The Motel in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, with optional 2.0 and 5.1 audio tracks. The film has a slightly pastel, washed look to it, which the DVD represents perfectly. Being an independent comedy, you’re not going to find any bombastic audio, but what there is is nice and clear.

The DVD features an twenty minute Behind the Scenes featurette featuring fly on the wall footage and various interviews with filmakers, actors, covering everything from story, casting, and prodiction to analyses of the individual characters. Because it’s not a big studio production it’s not the usual EPK fluff. Everyone comes across as thoughtful and modest, not afraid to complement the contributions of others. It’s quite nice.

The Director’s Picks extra is a series of four brief sequences related to shooting various scenes in the film. Of these the best is probably “The Kiss” which documents Jeffrey Chayau’s real life first kiss while performing for the movie. These are very brief, and feel a bit like deleted scenes from the Behind the Scenes doc.

Also included is a commentary track featuring Kang, Chayau, and Kim. It’s fairly laid back and low key, but Kang does provide a few anecdotes regarding production that are bound to interest aspiring filmmakers, and an amusing discussion on the film’s “fried chicken and porn.”

Lastly you have the original trailer for The Motel, a series of trailers for upcoming Palm releases, and a collection of web links to PalmPictures.com, and pubertySucks.com, the film’s official website and Director Michael Kang’s blog. It’s worth noting that the filmmakers are currently holding a YouTube contest for the “worst puberty story”. Link below. A personal embarrassing puberty story? During my entire high school career I went to once dance, as a sophomore, where ironically once I had started dancing with a girl my father came in and collected me. His reasoning was that he didn’t want to have to pick me up later in the evening (ie: when the dance actually ended). Quite irksome.

All in all, a quality disc for a quality film. Check it out.

Bonus links:
The Motel Film’s myspace page
YouTube Contest for The Motel

About the Author

Chris Nelson has been a film fanatic since age six. A former film and English major, he is now a Software Engineer and contract Technical Writer living in the Silicon Valley.

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