Movie review: ‘Where the Road Meets the Sun’

In “Where the Road Meets the Sun,” a handful of lives intersect in one of those slightly dodgy Los Angeles residence hotels that many people likely drive past but never set foot inside and where stays are indefinite, perhaps a few days or a week and sometimes sliding over into something longer.

A Japanese man (Will Yun Lee) regains memories of his criminal past after waking from a coma, while the hotel’s manager (Eric Mabius) seems stuck in place after losing a love he can’t forget. An aimless British backpacker (Luke Brandon Field) who seems interested only in picking up girls is befriended by a Mexican immigrant (Fernando Noriega) struggling at odd jobs while telling his wife back home that he is on his way up the corporate ladder.

The main female role (Laura Ramsey) is a total throwaway — mostly she just lives down the hall — present simply to be shocked and screaming at an appropriate moment. The feature debut for Singapore-born, Los Angeles-based filmmaker Yong Mun Chee, the film suffers most from its own ambitions.

In its desire to intertwine the stories of its four main male characters, it does each a disservice, leaving potentially interesting avenues unexplored. The connections seem designed by some kind of algorithm — he can’t remember while he can’t forget! — making them seem that much more hollow and forced.

“Where the Road Meets the Sun” is earnest but inorganic, trying hard but uninvolving, with little to actually say about the big, mixed-up intersection of crazy and unbelievable that is Los Angeles at its best.

“Where the Road Meets the Sun.” MPAA rating: Unrated. Running Time: 1 hour, 33 minutes. At the Laemmle Sunset 5, West Hollywood.