THE MOTEL is the coming-of-age story of Ernest Chin (Jeffrey Chyau), a 13-year old boy who grows up in the less-than-ideal environment of his family’s motel. His mother Ahma Chin (Jade Wu) discourages his development as a writer and puts him to work at the family business, where he regularly encounters prostitutes and other ne’er do wells. Ernest spends his spare time hanging out with his friend Christine (Memoirs of a Geisha’s Samantha Futerman), who works nearby at her family’s restaurant. When Sam Kim (Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift’s Sung Kang) checks into the motel and appoints himself mentor, Ernest begins to confront everything from a mysterious box of fried chicken to the girl of his dreams.

The film begins with Ernest sitting on top of a dumpster, chomping on an egg roll. The dumpster looms large in his life. It’s located in the parking lot of the restaurant where Christine works. Ernest gets to see her when she takes out the trash. Behind the dumpster, the two friends keep a stockpile of porn, which they consume with comical, innocent fascination.

Viewers like resilient characters, and so it’s great to see how well Ernest takes all of the shit that’s thrown at him. It goes in and comes out in a more beautiful form. Ernest eats junk food, but his chubbiness, during his close-ups, seems lush and ripe. When he finally makes a move on Christine, his pick-up line sounds like it’s plucked from a porno mag, but coming from him, it’s not dirty, it’s hilarious.

Samantha Futerman is great as Christine. She’s a luminous presence and yet still seems like a kid. All the children in the film seem natural, including Alexis Chang as Ernest’s tattle-tale sister Katie.

Less innocent is Sam Kim, a slightly shady character who comes to the motel to escape his broken marriage. Sung Kang is perfectly cast as this sexy older-brother figure who has problems of his own but who quickly gives himself over to spicing up Ernest’s life, whether Ernest likes it or not. He also gets some of the best lines. “You didn’t tell me she was Asian,” he says to Ernest when he learns about Christine, as though this fact already dooms Ernest to rejection. “They’re trying to get away from [their Asianness]. You just remind them of it.” Sam doesn’t always say the right thing, but there’s no doubt that he tries.

One key event occurs before the real action of the film begins. Ernest writes a story and enters it in a contest without telling his mother. When he wins an honorable mention, his mother berates him about it. He continues to dream about the awards dinner, however, and the story, called “The Motel,” is a thread that runs throughout the film and ties it together at the end. The poignancy of the film’s title comes as much from this occasionally glimpsed story as it does from the place these characters inhabit.

The Motel won the Humanitas Prize at Sundance, Best Narrative Feature from the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival and Best Dramatic Feature from The San Diego Asian Film Festival. It plays in New York through July 11 at the Film Forum. Don’t miss it!