Under One Roof

This film is about a young Chinese American who has to come out to his mum who holds traditional Chinese attitudes.

It approaches the traditional Chinese values of family and respect for elders in a touching way. I was particularly impressed by the scene where Daniel picks back up the torn dating leaflet after mum's simple sentence about dad. It illustrates how tradition imposes intense lock and chain on Chinese youngsters. Even more touching is the exchange of thoughts between the two mothers. It is almost inspirational, and I think all mothers in the situation should watch it for educational purposes. Daniel and Robert are so natural and passionate about each other that makes their relationship and the film even more convincing.

I liked it a lot. Yes, it's very much indie and low-budget, but the point of the movie was to show things from the Chinese-American character's point of view, to show why the answer to "why don't you just come out to your parents?" can be a lot more complicated than others may imagine. Worthwhile and fun and sweet.

The style and acting was meant to be naturalistic, and the emotions are kept pretty restrained. I kind of liked the way the characters were very much depicted as pretty much ordinary guys, like the ones I knew growing up. The movie avoids extremes that are so common that we don't even think about them. There's no big, high-drama drug problems (at one extreme) nor no guys with jet-setting (perfect but empty) lives, and the funny "best friend" characters aren't so terribly arch. Seems pretty true to life, which forces you to concentrate on the story and message, which is pretty quiet, emotionally brave turf to tread. In that sense, it takes some risks in its simplicity.

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.

This movie sucked, I expected badly made softcore smut, but this was sad sad porn, all I kept waiting for was for Robert to drop his pants, and he never did, instead we had to settle for flaccid dicks from a couple of naturalists, and a bad shot of the obligatory queen in the movie. AWFUL. I don't expect these movies to be good, but at least I expect them to be interesting, and the only interesting thing about Under One Roof, were the two guys making out behind me at the theater. Can I just ask? what's up with all the tickling? what are they five? and lets not talk about the technical aspects, because I've seen better acting in regional theater. the only intentionally funny thing in the flick was the grandmother, although the main character's shortcomings got me chuckling a few times.

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.