Western Avenue

A second-generation Korean-American woman, Jisoo, leaves her medical studies to pursue acting in New York. After experiencing trauma and alienation in LA’s vibrant but harsh subcultures: including scenes involving drug use and body art; she returns to her immigrant family’s life near Western Avenue. Her return coincides with the Rodney King riots, forcing her to confront identity, belonging, and the fragile ties between her American experiences and her Korean heritage.

Cast

Kang Soo-youn

as Kim Ji-soo

Jung Bo-seog

as Kim Jae-moon

Johnny Yune

as Father

Park Jeong-ja

as Mother

Park Chan-hwan

as Frank

Kim Byeong-se

Lee Jong-man

Brian Keith Allen

as Gang Leader

Darn Oldham

as Lead Rioter

Josh Stolberg

as Steve

Reviews

Similar Movies

Transamerica

A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.

⭐ 7.0

Sunset Boulevard

A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.

⭐ 8.3

The Bodyguard

A former Secret Service agent grudgingly takes an assignment to protect a pop idol who's threatened by a crazed fan. At first, the safety-obsessed bodyguard and the self-indulgent diva totally clash. But before long, all that tension sparks fireworks of another sort, and the love-averse tough guy is torn between duty and romance.

⭐ 6.7

The Usual Suspects

Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro harbor – leaving few survivors. Verbal lures his interrogators with an incredible story of the crime lord's almost supernatural prowess.

⭐ 8.2

Lost Highway

A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.

⭐ 7.5

Inland Empire

When actress Nikki Grace gets the lead role in a cursed film, her world becomes more and more surreal, blending realities and ideas of infidelity, reincarnation, and supernatural forces.

⭐ 7.0

Nowhere

In Los Angeles, a colorful assortment of bohemians try to make sense of their intersecting lives. The moody Dark Smith, his bisexual girlfriend, her lesbian lover and their shy gay friend plan on attending the wildest party of the year. But they'll only make it if they can survive the drug trips, suicides, trysts, mutilations and alien abductions that occur as one surreal day unfolds.

⭐ 6.8

The Next Best Thing

A comedy-drama about best friends - one a straight woman, Abbie, the other a gay man, Robert - who decide to have a child together. Five years later, Abbie falls in love with a straight man and wants to move away with her and Robert's little boy Sam, and a nasty custody battle ensues.

⭐ 5.3

Murder, My Sweet

After being hired to find an ex-con's former girlfriend, Philip Marlowe is drawn into a deeply complex web of mystery and deceit.

⭐ 7.2

Land of Plenty

After living abroad, Lana returns to the United States, and finds that her uncle is a reclusive vagabond with psychic wounds from the Vietnam War.

⭐ 6.1

Crash

In post-Sept. 11 Los Angeles, tensions erupt when the lives of a Brentwood housewife, her district attorney husband, a Persian shopkeeper, two cops, a pair of carjackers and a Korean couple converge during a 36-hour period.

⭐ 7.2

Show Me What You Got

Follows three young millennials as they form a wholehearted ménage à trois, each of them going through a moment of transition: Fun-loving Marcello from under the thumb of his Italian soap star father, soulful French-Iranian actor Nassim toward a more fulfilling career, and artist Christine through the grief following the death of her grandfather. The trio finds joy together by joining political protests, making art, and falling deeper into their unconventional love, until Marcello must return to Italy.

⭐ 5.2

White Men Can't Jump

Two street basketball hustlers try to con each other, then team up for a bigger score.

⭐ 6.6

The Ever After

Ava and Thomas live--to outside eyes--the good life, complete with a child and a lovely home in Los Angeles, but something is lost. Ava has placed her acting career on hold to play the mother and good wife, while Thomas' job as a fashion photographer puts him in dangerously tempting situations. When trauma strikes, they must confront their innermost vulnerabilities to recover their disintegrating marriage.

⭐ 5.7

Factotum

This drama centers on Hank Chinaski, the fictional alter-ego of "Factotum" author Charles Bukowski, who wanders around Los Angeles, CA trying to live off jobs which don't interfere with his primary interest, which is writing. Along the way, he fends off the distractions offered by women, drinking and gambling.

⭐ 6.1

Summertime

Over the course of a hot summer day in Los Angeles, the lives of 25 young Angelinos intersect. A skating guitarist, a tagger, two wannabe rappers, an exasperated fast-food worker, a limo driver—they all weave in and out of each other's stories. Through poetry they express life, love, heartache, family, home, and fear. One of them just wants to find someplace that still serves good cheeseburgers.

⭐ 6.4

Street Smart

A look into the lives of a lively group of unhoused young adults in the iconic beach town, who come together with humor and a bit of Robin Hood-style larceny, forging unbreakable bonds and redefining what it means to be a family.

⭐ 0.0

City of Angels

When a guardian angel – who invisibly watches over the citizens of Los Angeles – becomes captivated by a strong-willed heart surgeon, he ponders trading in his pure, otherworldly existence for a mortal life with his beloved. The couple embarks on a tender but forbidden romance spanning heaven and Earth.

⭐ 6.8

Playing by Heart

In a vibrant tapestry of love and longing, nine interconnected souls navigate romance and heartbreak in L.A., where passions collide and truths unfold, revealing that the heart's desires often lead us where we least expect.

⭐ 6.6

Chinatown

Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.

⭐ 7.9