A terrific indie drama, and great portrait of Los Angeles Koreatown

damn that was bad. the plot and the acting.... eh...

Boring and slow. This movie could have been 20 mins long

This Sundance debut is an intimately observant drama about a son of migrant parents dogging the American dream in Los Angeles' Koreatown agonizing in his own skin of academic ineptness, flustering sexuality and dereliction of filial piety.

It's a really surreal experience to see my life reflected so much in a piece of media - to the point that I find myself crying and needing to stop. Andrew Ahn's Spa Night (2016) is subtle and slow with its storytelling but has moments of extremely potent emotion stitched into it that gut-punches you every time. Read full review here: jane-han.com/blog/2017/1/29/qthssllycbm0n0yepnyyrs46fduquk

Half baked and unexplained story, way too long, full of static shots, could be reduced by half, should be way more explicit with hetaed sexual scenes, horrible photography with cameras in the wrong position mostly, lighting too bright, waste of a good cast, I wonder if the director has actually visited a gay sauna at all, poor film on an interesting topic.

First of all, despite it's name, don't go in expecting some kind of gay soft-core porn. The film is a coming of age story about an Asian-American teen who slowly realizes he's attracted to men. In fact, the gay subtext really comes secondary to just dealing with the Asian-American experience of living up to the expectation of immigrant parents. This kind of slow-paced, character centric film isn't for everyone. It's almost meditative in how much is said despite the fact the main character doesn't talk much. I know a couple people who found the story very relatable to their own, and I appreciate how more and more we are getting to see their stories put on the big screen.

A bit too slow for its own good, but also an engaging and quiet movie of some power.

i want to work at an all male spa. in korea tho. where only quiet gentle korean boys play.

Joe Seo is very good.

Aside from the abrupt ending, it's a nice little film about familial and societal pressures and the self-loathing that can occur when those expectations aren't met.

this is a example of a well done trailer and then a movie drawn out well past its needed run time to fill a "feature length". it could have made for a interesting short film but quick tip for filmmakers obsessed with making features over shorts= see what your story calls for, not what you need to get into a festival. there were plenty of scenes that could have been cut, shortened or done away with and saved this film, instead it just drags on going tiny step by tiny step into what finishes as something that should have been were it got by the 40 min mark.

Moody, moving and restive, the decidedly minor-key Spa Night is deftly able to retain a sense of humor, wonder and yearning among of all its main characters while telling a universal coming of age story through a Korean-American prism.

Very well done film--excellent acting, great to see L.A. portrayed as the multi-cultural city that it is. Very interesting exploration of a gay Korean teen's awakening, but also a great family story, immigrant story, LA story.

Don't miss this little gem. It reflects a segment of life in Los Angeles's Korean community that is so realistic, you feel you are spying on them.

Writer-director Andrew Ahn has made a confident, assured, low-key debut that's a textbook example of how to make a compelling small-budget movie.