Product Details

• Actors: John Cho
• Directors: Michael Kang
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Pathfinder Home Ent
• DVD Release Date: October 13, 2009
• Run Time: 86 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002JT6ALI
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #152,035 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "West 32nd" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

WEST 32ND - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is nothing like "The Motel", October 24, 2009

By 

C. Kim "padre chiba" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: West 32nd (DVD)

I loved Michael Kang's "The Motel" so when I found out he was making a Korean-American gangster film set in NYC I had to see it (went to both the Tribeca and Pusan Film Festivals). The darker, film-noir style of this movie is nothing like the cute and touching The Motel. The main actors, John Cho, Grace Park, Jun-Seong Kim and Jane Kim gave great performances, and Lanny Joon was hysterical as the 2nd-in-command gang leader (he's been on TV shows like Numb3rs, CSI:Las Vegas, and ep 7 of Lost: The Complete Fourth Season).

I learned at the Film Festivals that this movie was co-written by Edmund Lee when he was at "The Village Voice." You can tell as there are details in the movie that hint at investigative journalism.

It was refreshing to see John Cho and Grace Park in roles outside of what they might be best known for, namely: "Sulu" in the recent Star Trek, "Harold" in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (Unrated Extended Edition), and "Sharon Valerii" in Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. For those of you who follow Korean dramas, Jung Joon-Ho (Last Scandal) makes a cameo appearance. I'd never seen him before but I can see why he's a popular star in Korea as he was very charismatic.

Some parts of the movie were poignant for me as a second generation son of parents from Korea. The style of the movie reminds me of 70's films like Dog Day Afternoon [Blu-ray] but set in present day New York, with a cultural twist. I won't leave any spoilers here but if you like gangster films and can stomach some violence, you'll like "West 32nd." (btw, it's all spoken English with a few parts in Korean with English subtitles)

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Saw it 3 times, September 25, 2009

By 

Nina Won - See all my reviews
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This review is from: West 32nd (DVD)

I saw this three times when it was on the festival circuit. Definitely recommend!

John Cho was great. So were some of the breakout actors like Lanny Joon.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just because you are Korean does not mean you are Korean, February 26, 2010

By 

Zack Davisson "japanreviewed" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: West 32nd (DVD)

"West 32nd" is director Michael Kang's second film, after the award-winning debut film The Motel. Whereas "The Motel" was a heart-warming and sometimes funny slice-of-life drama, "West 32nd" is completely different in tone, being a gritty crime drama that goes into one of the darker corners of New York.

The film begins with John Kim (John Cho), an upwardly mobile young lawyer assigned to work a pro bono case defending a teenager who is accused of murder of the owner of a Hostess Club in New York's Korean district. Kim was selected by his law firm in the hopes of generating good will and future business with New York's Korean community. Once inside this closed society, however, Kim is forced to confront the fact that although he is racially Korean, he is not ethnically Korean and is more at home sipping cocktails with his lawyer friends than he is in societies where Korean is spoken and the culture is maintained.

Kim befriends a gangster, Mike Juhn, who he sees as someone not so different from himself, and maybe what Kim might have become if he had been raised with closer ties to Korea. Juhn introduces Kim to the seedier elements of the society, and Kim becomes seduced by the danger and excitement of the criminal world. Meanwhile, his client's older sister Lili (Grace Park) tries to keep Kim on task even offering some hope of future romance, but Lili seems to have some hidden agenda as well.

Much of the appeal for "West 32nd" comes from the pairing of its two lead actors, John Cho (Harold from Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle as well as Hiraru Sulu from Star Trek) and Grace Park (Boomer from Battlestar Galactica). When I was watching the film I was struck by how rare it is to see an Asian/Asian romance in an American film. Normally, Grace Park would be paired up with some white guy, and John Cho would be the "sexless Asian male" that is found in his other performances. While I see Asian/Asian pairings all the time in Asian films, this is one of the few times I have seen two Asian actors flirting in English.

The ethnicity issues were also interesting to see confronted, as that is something I experience in my own life. My wife is Japanese, and she has a hard time with Asian Americans who call themselves "Japanese" but cannot speak the language and know little about the culture and customs. To her they are simply Americans, regardless of skin color and eye shape. This is the same situation John Kim is forced to confront when he meets actual Koreans and can not even speak to them without an interpreter.

There are some weaknesses to "West 32nd." I like John Cho, but he is not the most engaging leading actor for this kind of drama, and his chemistry with Grace Park is a little flat. I would have liked to have seen Grace Park more (which goes without saying, seeing as she is one of the most beautiful women on the planet) but her character is more of a supporting player than in the main story.

"West 32nd" is a film with definite intentions, to tell a story of race-relations and ethnicity within a single community carefully hidden within a crime drama. I though I saw some influences from the Korean film Green Fish, especially with the seduction to the criminal world. Visually, the film is beautiful, and while the plot becomes a bit didactic in points, overall I think director Kang managed to pull it off with style.