With American studios starting to seriously look east (particularly to Korea, where the film industry is thriving) for films and investment opportunities, it's not surprising that Asian studios are beginning to look back this way, as well. Among those studios is Korean major CJ Entertainment, which is in the middle of making its first US-based film.

According to Variety, CJ's film is entitled West 32nd and is set in New York's Koreatown, where it is currently shooting under the direction of The Motel writer-director Michael Kang. Though details about the movie's plot are few and far between, it revolves around a lawyer (played by Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle star John Cho) who gets mixed up with the Korean mob. In addition to Cho, the film features Battlestar Galactica's Grace Park, as well as what Kang calls "some Korean actors you probably don't know but who are really well-known in Korea."

The shoot is scheduled to wrap next month, with US and Korean releases planned for early 2007.

There's a strong tradition in recent American entertainment that almost celebrates the horrors of growing up. From the novels of Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume, to My So-Called Life and Malcolm in the Middle, to Pretty in Pink and Welcome to the Dollhouse, American culture indulges in a sort of gleeful dissection of every childhood trauma, from the smallest slight to the largest, most devastating blow. Much of the time, perhaps illogically, these microscopic looks are executed in the service of comedy, likely with the understanding that, if we didn't laugh at our remembered struggles, we might be reduced to tears on an embarrassingly regular basis. Sometimes, though, as in both Welcome to the Dollhouse and The Motel, writer-director Michael Kang's debut feature which opens today in New York, the uneasy laughter does nothing to lessen the pain. Instead, it serves only to highlight the horrible injustice we're witnessing, and render the stories told in those films even more wrenching for audiences.

Kang's film tells the story of Ernest, a chubby, bespectacled 13-year-old who lives and works in a small, roadside motel run by his mother. Wonderfully played by Jeffrey Chyau, Ernest is almost painfully laconic, speaking rarely and moving quickly only when he tries to escape the bullying of Roy (Conor J. White), a bored kid who's lived in the motel with his sister and deadbeat dad for weeks. Apart from the furtive masturbation session prompted by a girly magazine, the world has little impact on Ernest; even when he's upset by something, it's hard to tell. Trapped in a frustratingly unresponsive body, Ernest doesn't even think quickly. He's not stupid, he just takes his time in making decisions, and is unashamed of carefully examining things that interest him, even if that examination involves staring at motel guests.