Thirteen-year-old Ernest Chin's life is devoted to working at his family's hourly-rate motel, where a steady stream of prostitutes, johns, and various other shady characters come and go.

Ernest also blindly explores his incipient sexuality, which includes nursing a crush on Christine, an older girl who works at a Chinese restaurant nearby.

Ernest's life changes after he meets the newest guest at the motel: a self-destructive yet charming Korean-American man named Sam Kim, who is caught in a downward spiral after estrangement from his wife.

[8] The site's critics consensus reads, "A coming-of-age dramedy whose familiar outline is filled in with rewarding empathy and character detail, The Motel marks an impressive feature debut for writer-director Michael Kang.

[9] Stephen Holden of the New York Times wrote in his positive review that "Michael Kang's small, perfectly observed portrait of a Chinese-American boy captures the glum desperation of inhabiting the biological limbo of early adolescence.

"[10] Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News said, "Unlike so many indie films, Michael Kang's gently empathetic debut embraces eccentricity without drowning in its own hip irony.

"[11] Joe Leydon at Variety said of the film, "Indie coming-of-age dramedy about a precocious Chinese-American youth whose family operates a sleazy roadside motel signals arrival of a singularly promising filmmaker.

[13] It was ranked at the number 18 spot with the description, "This Sundance charmer follows a 13-year-old boy's misadventures growing up in a locale all too familiar to many Asian American immigrants: the family-run motel.