Ernest (Jeffrey Chyau) at the front desk of THE MOTEL, written and directed by Michael Kang. Photo: Jonathan Grassi Thirteen-year-old Ernest Chin lives and works at a sleazy hourly-rate motel on a strip of desolate suburban bi-way. Misunderstood by his family and blindly careening into puberty, Ernest befriends Sam Kim, a self-destructive yet charismatic Korean American man who has checked in. Sam teaches the fatherless boy all the rites of manhood.