Spa evening
Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend delves into adjacent queer and queer headlines from the past that deserve a watch or re-watch.
The Steamy: spa evening
Anyone looking for a burgeoning queer author, look no further than director Andrew Ahn. In addition to directing an episode of the recent historic FX LGBTQ Pride series, Ahn also directed episodes of the gay-themed Sundance series This Close, as well as the famous indie Driveways which featured one of the late performances of the late. Brian Dennehy. .
For a personal and very weird story, however, we recommend checking out Ahn’s debut feature, the (literally) scorching drama Spa Night. The film follows David (Joe Seo), a young Korean-American who lands a job at a Korean spa in Los Angeles to help his impoverished family pay the bills. Said bathhouse, however, caters to a gay clientele, and it doesn’t take long for David to discover the underground world of gay sex around him. Witnessing men at various stages of coitus begins to arouse David’s own desire, as he finds himself increasingly drawn to the men around him, despite his own strict religious and conservative upbringing.
Ahn doesn’t populate Spa Night with the kind of lofty talk and confrontation common to dramas. Instead, he takes a more distant approach, letting his camera drift over his characters without really commenting on the action. In that sense, the film deals with voyeurism: both that of David as he watches gay sex around him, and that of the audience themselves. Watching the story unfold, we feel less like a traditional spectator and more like someone hiding in a corner of the room and watching the characters behave as opposed to the machinations of a plot. Ahn also makes the bold decision to deny David any kind of resolution. Spa Night doesn’t have so much a traditional ending as a stopping point. In another movie that would infuriate viewers. Here it seems appropriate: David’s journey has only just begun.
Calm, pensive and charged with sexual desire, Spa Night portrays a non-idealized view of sexual arousal. Ahn knows that with this rapture comes pain, fear and uncertainty. No doubt most of us in the queer world can relate.
Streams on Amazon, YouTube, and VUDU.
