Under One Roof
Under One Roof
NR | 09 November 2002 (USA)
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San Francisco twenty-something Daniel Chang faces a bind when he can't resist the hot tenant recruited by his clueless, traditional mother.

Reviews
Contentar

Best movie of this year hands down!

Dynamixor

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

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Voxitype

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

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Billy Ollie

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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Suradit

Couldn't believe the comment in one other review: " Asian men are never portrayed as the central love interest, or god forbid SEXY." Then I realized that the review was written 7 years ago... and in America.There are now sooooooooo many fantastic Asian films with Asian men as the central love interest and unquestionably they are overwhelmingly,devastatingly sexy, which is more than can be said for this crew. More importantly the films are interesting, well-acted, well-directed, shot in the real world (as opposed to someone's basement) and did I mention, well-acted.Most of these far superior movies were produced in Asia, for example, Soundless Wind Chime, 15, City without Baseball, Eternal Summer, My Fair Son, Bangkok Love Story ... to name a few. Not high budget, but beautifully presented and with meaningful stories... and with high quality acting even if the central characters are amateurs or even just kids off the street.Under One Roof is like a badly acted '50's soap opera or a high school production. I'm not sure which is worse, when they appear to be reading their lines in monotones or when they suddenly try to add some (generally inappropriate) emotion while reading their lines. The main character seems to only employ annoyed whining as his style, no matter what the situation. There is no sense of interaction between the actors.I can't imagine that even 5 or 10 years ago this would have been more than an embarrassing amateurish production.

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PVcondo1

As a gay Asian American man, I grew up watching TV and movies where I was never represented. So for me Under One Roof was a welcome change from the usual Hollywood depiction of Asian men as either mysterious strangers, emasculated servants, or comic side kicks. Asian men are never portrayed as the central love interest, or god forbid SEXY.Finally there is a movie where I can see myself reflected on the screen. A movie where not only the lead actor, but several supporting actors are gay Asian men. Yes, I am familiar with the Wedding Banquet, and yes it is a better movie, but how many years has it been since a gay Asian man was the lead in a movie?Now I am not saying this is a great movie, far from it. The acting can be wooden at times, and downright bad at other times, but after having listened to the directors commentary I think a lot of that can be blamed on the way that filming had to be rushed along.The two leads, Daniel and Robert were convincing in their scenes together, but less so when they were acting with the others in the cast (I think they had real chemistry together) Given the limited budget and time I think everyone did a good job. The writing was a bit stilted in places, but there were some genuinely touching as well as funny scenes in this movie.AS for the male nudity. As a healthy gay man, I NEVER find frontal male nudity gratuitous. It is always appreciated and very welcome.

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jake82

Okay, I almost never write reviews on IMDb because I generally agree with what at least one person has said about any certain film. However, in the case of "Under One Roof" I was shocked to see that the film had garnered a 6.1 rating and three generally supportive comments. After viewing this film I couldn't think of a single original or unique attribute that made it worthwhile... every scene, scenario and character is ripped from the endless slosh of gay narratives available in film and television-- many of which are low-quality, but which all surpass this confusing spectacle. Many filmmakers today are using DV as a mechanism to reduce production cost, increase camera mobility and allow for more footage to be shot without being concerned about cost. In "Under One Roof" the extremely low production value is evident, but the makers fail to use DV for any of its other advantages... each scene is shot from only one angle and it is obvious in the scenes where actors stumble over their lines that the production was a very rushed process. The film is at best a terribly watered down version of Ang Lee's brilliant "The Wedding Banquet" and employs liberal use of musical montages (resulting in very repetitive, annoying keyboard music that becomes very familiar to the viewer by the end of this 76-minute train wreck), flashbacks, supposedly meaningful silences and unnecessary voice over. It teeters between dramedy and pornography with various interspersed scenes of gratuitous nudity that fail to both serve any erotic purpose or further the plot (most notedly a painfully long "sex" scene in which two characters undress and stand around aimlessly for a while before breaking into a sentimental story about a very special coin in one of their collections). The strange, unnatural sets and cheap cinematography only contribute to the film's pseudo-porn air.Absolutely no variation on the traditional "coming out" story is offered here, in a story about a man (Jay Wong) in his late 20s living at home with his traditional Chinese mother and grandmother in San Francisco. The script's derivative nature is almost too much to handle when you hear the actors stumble over lame one-liners and puns. I implore you to avoid this bomb at any cost... if you don't believe me, just watch the charming trailer available at the top of this page to see a few seconds of the film's top notch quality.

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kh98021

Okay, if you are looking for slick Hollywood production values, skip this one. But the film does have sweetness, charm & sincerity. The acting and writing are uneven at best, but I thought James Marks as the boarder Robert was charming & sexy. Yes, "The Wedding Banquet" is a superior film that covers much of the same territory. But "Under One Roof" has its honest pleasures as well.

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