What a gem this one is. You can tell this a personal story by this talented new writer/director Michael Kang. The story is told very carefully and with much grace. At first you may think, oh no they might exploit this time of every boys life, but there's not a hint of that. Some scenes are uncomfortable while most of them are quite hilarious.
The story begins by showing this chubby young asian kid walking to his destination, the motel. He stays there with his mom, grandpa and of course his annoying little sister. Everyday he cleans these motels rooms, no matter how disgusting they are. He doesn't really like his sister and really thinks of her more as an annoying dog that follows him around. He doesn't really like his mom very much because she seems to be negative towards him a lot of the time. He's basically neutral with his grandpa and doesn't get much help from him. Who can help him?
One day a drunk middle-aged man with a prostitute comes stumbling into the office, were the boy seemingly spends most of his time, and tells him to pick a card. So he grabs a credit card out of his wallet and swipes it as the man walks off into room 15 with the prostitute right beside him. The card is denied so he takes it to the man without telling his mom so that she wouldn't get angry at him. The boy develops a sort of fascination with this man that seems to bring a countless number of prostitutes into his motel room. As the boys curiousity builds, he eventually starts a friendship with this man. They are two people looking for happiness but just don't know how to find it.
Now the adventure begins as the two hang out and do things ranging from stupid and hilarious to desperate and life changing. The man teaches the boy all that he knows, he just doesn't really know how to teach him. It's almost like he wants to fill the gap that the boy has had of never having a father figure. But he soon finds that that isn't possible, he's unable to help him because he cannot help himself. They are both trying to find there way through the darkness.
The boy hangs out around a dumpster in the parking lot of a restaraunt where a girl works at that he hangs out with every so often. They have a little brother big sister relationship. He sometimes doesn't know how to act around her which can bring some akwardness in there scenes. He's at the age of experimentation and she's way ahead but he doesn't realize that, yet they have a bond that keeps them friends.
The story is told in a way that not a whole lot of directors are able to create just right. If you got the director of K.I.D.S. to make this movie, it might be an exploitation film and it would be horrible. It all depends on who directs this kind of story and Michael Kang was the best man for the job. There's a subtle touch to this film that creates the kind of atmosphere that all boys explore somewhere in life. We may not like all of it and we may just want to run away from it all but it's apart of our lives. It's the life that bring us joy and laughter and redemption and too many emotions to describe. And to see this one boy go through one of the hardests times of a boys life, it can show us understanding, but most of all it can show us healing!