Spa Night

Spa Night is a 2016 American drama film directed by Andrew Ahn and starring Joe Seo. It was shown in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. At Sundance, Joe Seo won the Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance.

Plot
David, an 18-year-old living in Koreatown, Los Angeles becomes an employee at a spa to help his financially struggling parents. He soon discovers illicit gay sex between the customers, which forces him to consider his own sexuality.

While this has been described as a coming out story, the focus is on the internal world of David, and his deep struggles and uncertainty, as a teenager, about how to be a good son but how to also be himself in what is a conservative family and rigid community.

Cast

 * Joe Seo as David
 * Haerry Kim as Soyoung
 * Youn Ho Cho as Jin
 * Tae Song as Eddie
 * Ho Young Chung as Spa Manager
 * Linda Han as Mrs. Baek
 * Eric Jeong as Peter
 * Yong Kim as Academy Director

Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 96%, based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 6.80/10. The site’s critics consensus reads, "In depicting one man's sexual awakening, Spa Night explores the tension between tradition and individuality with tenderness and compassion." On Metacritic the film has a score of 76 out of 100 score, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".