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

Reviewed by Robin Kadir at Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2014

This film became the first for director Charles Chu, before this he had only worked with a couple shorts. Gavin Kelly on the other hand has a little more experience in filmmaking.  He has been a cinematographer for a bunch of films, such as West Bank Story and Play the Game, but this is actually his first production working as a director.

Chu and Blossom is a sweet film about an exchange student from Korea named Joon Chu (Charles Chu) and his new friend Butch Blossom (Ryan O’nan). Joon have just moved to the United States to study, because of his parents pushing him. He meets an unusual person named Butch, who really sees something special in Joon, soon they become very close and start a strong friendship together, and the film is about this journey and how Joon deals with the pressure from his parents, the judgments of americans and meeting a girl he starts to fall in love with.

I got the feeling that the directors Charles Chu and Gavin Kelly really had a clear idea of how they want to make this film and how the atmosphere should play out. I’m thinking american, romantic, teen comedy. Charles Chu, who not only directs, but also plays the lead, Joon Chu, is making it believable that his character just came to the United States and doesn’t speak english. Which is not always an easy task.

The film had much color and beautiful surroundings. It was edited in a good way, nothing about it bothered you, pretty much textbook-stuff really. I got the feeling that it tried to hard sometimes though, that it had already set up it’s mind how to make the audience feel without building it up properly. Then I mean the storyline, it was some sort of interest Joon had about bugs, and they someway relate to his brother that had passed away, but I didn’t really connect how that was, if it was properly build-up I would know, but it seemed like they rushed it a bit, which was a shame because it was a nice film.

Finally I just have to say that it was a nice film to watch, a feel-good film that is worth watching, and a big step for the two directors to have their first production out, and hopefully more to come.