Bitter Melon

2018 • 95 minutes

About this movie

From the producers of SORRY TO BOTHER YOU and COLMA: THE MUSICAL, BITTER MELON is the story of a Filipino-American family who reunites for a Christmas party at the family home in San Francisco only to find out that Troy Patrick Epino, the second oldest child, has been ruling the house with fear—intimidating everyone who lives there—including his mother, and even physically abusing his wife. What starts as a fun holiday reunion turns into a darkly humorous crime scene as Declan Jon Norman Schneider, the youngest son, leads the family as they conspire on how to best murder the violent and abusive Troy. Hailed as "an indie masterpiece" by Tim Sika of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle and "Mendoza's best directorial feature to date" by Variety's Dennis Harvey, BITTER MELON reunites director H.P. Mendoza with L.A. Renigen Colma: The Musical, Fruit Fly and Anna Ishida I Am a Ghost.

Ratings and reviews

I saw this movie at Outfest in Los Angeles and it's a really remarkable film in that it's two movies in one. What starts out as a hilarious rapid fire family comedy turns into a revenge crime drama that studies the decline of a Filipino-American family torn by violence. The whole movie is a swirling pot of concepts that seem to live separately from each other (a Pinay who lives in fear of her emotionally and physically abusive husband, a Filipino gay man who uses dating apps for quick sex, a white woman who doesn't consider herself a feminist yet knows the pitiful place of men in the world) but culminate in a final sequence that traces everyone's problems (and some strengths) back to one culprit.