Chu and Blossom (Charles Chu, Gavin Kelly, 2014) USA

Reviewed by Caroline Juul Mortensen at Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2014

Chu and Blossom was the second film I saw at Santa Barbara Film Festival and I was really positively surprised. The two directors, Charles Chu and Gavin Kelly, manage to fill this comedy, co-written by Charles Chu and Ryan O’nan, with lots of humor and so many well thought and genius lines.

It is a really sweet story about a Korean foreign-exchange student Joon Chu (Charles Chu), who is also the director. He moves in with a really strange host family consisting of the tacky and lisping mother, Mrs. Fefterg (Mercedes Ruehl) and her son with very small hands and odd interests Bud (Chris Marquette).

Being extremely tall and having difficulties adapting to this new culture and a new language, Joon has troubles fitting in at his new high school. He is trying to honor his family and make them proud by studying and not getting distracted by getting new friends, but when he meets the rebellious and misunderstood Butch Blossom (Ryan O’Nan) and his high school romance with pink hair Cherry Swade (Caitlin Stasey) things start to change and he is slowly drawn out of his comfort zone. Now Joon is starting to figure out that there are more things in life than books and that he is able to honor his family and his deceased brother by following his heart and dreams.

I have to say that I don’t think Charles Chu did the greatest job in his role as Joon and I also think they used too many of the same shots but in different angles in some of the scenes which had a tend to make it a bit too sluggish. But other than that there were a lot of really good actors in it (Ryan O’nan, Caitlin Stasey, Melanie Lynskey, Alan Cumming, Chris Marquette, Mercedes Ruehl), which made the movie so much more interesting. Also there was a scene I completely fell in love with. Without revealing too much I got the chills in the scene with the tree and the flying locusts. Amazing camera work, good angles, beautiful music and the special effects were spot on.

It is not the strongest story but I think it is really sweet and I like the idea behind it. Don’t let anyone control your life – it is your life and you only got to live it once so make it worth it. I will definitely recommend Chu and Blossom to everyone who likes a good laugh and maybe also to unicorn lovers because Blossom, believe it or not, has a pink scooter and a helmet with a horn on it. Genius!