Bringemovies
← Browse Movies
The Debut
TITLE DETAILS

The Debut

2000-05-18 · 88 min · ★ 6.0

Drama

Filipino-American high school student Ben works in a comic book shop to earn money to pay his way into Cal Arts. His father, a postman, is determined that his son, who has won a pre-med scholarship to UCLA, will become a doctor. The eighteenth birthday party of Ben's sister, Rose, sets off a comedic and touching series of events and family struggles that will in turn determine young Ben's future.

Open detail page

Trailers are previews, not full movies.

No authorized playback source configured. Use the legal watch options below.

Production details

Directors
Gene Cajayon
Production companies
Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), National Asian American Telecommunications Association
Countries
United States of America
Status
Released
Budget
USD 1,000,000

Top Cast

Dante BascoDante BascoBen Mercado
Jayson SchaalDoug
Brian CardDave
Mindy SpenceJennifer
Nicole HawkyardSusie
Brandon MartinezRick
Ernie ZarateErnie ZarateTito Lenny
Gina AlajarGina AlajarGina Mercado
Bernadette BalagtasBernadette BalagtasRose Mercado
Derek BascoDerek BascoEdwin Mercado
Joy BiscoJoy BiscoAnnabelle Manalo
Rawlins ApiladoJun
Tirso Cruz IIITirso Cruz IIIRoland Mercado
Darion BascoDarion BascoAugusto
Dionysio BascoDionysio BascoRommel
Eddie GarciaEddie GarciaLolo Carlos

Title information and images are supplied by TMDb. Explore our discovery guide for advice on comparing metadata and legal viewing options.

Where to watch

Availability provided by JustWatch via TMDb. Offers can change. Provider links are listed on TMDb; full playback requires a separately authorized source.

Rental

Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home

Purchase

Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home

View authorized watch options on TMDb

Recommendations

Bastard Out of Carolina
★ 7.1
Bastard Out of Carolina1996Drama

A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.

El Chicano
★ 6.6
El Chicano2019Drama

A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.

Dear Zoe
★ 6.4
Dear Zoe2022Drama

Tess enlists her biological father – a lovable slacker from the wrong side of the tracks – and the charming juvenile delinquent next door to help her come to grips with the death of her little sister.

Hardball
★ 6.5
Hardball2001Drama

An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.

The Padre
★ 5.9
The Padre2018Drama

American retired Judge Randall Nemes and his hired gun, Gaspar, track down a con man posing as a priest in a small Colombian town only to be thrown off-course by a scrappy 16-year-old girl intent on reuniting with her sister in the United States.

True Colors
★ 6.2
True Colors1991Drama

Two law school friends find themselves at odds when one becomes a Justice Department lawyer and the other goes into politics.

All Day and a Night
★ 6.3
All Day and a Night2020Drama

While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.

The Nest
★ 6.1
The Nest2020Drama

Rory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban surroundings, the family is plunged into the despair of an archaic '80s Britain and their unaffordable new life in an English manor house threatens to destroy the family.

The Beautiful Country
★ 6.2
The Beautiful Country2004Drama

After reuniting with his mother in Ho Chi Minh City, a family tragedy causes Binh to flee from Viet Nam to America. Landing in New York, Binh begins a road trip to Texas, where his American father is said to live.

The Kindness of Strangers
★ 6.4
The Kindness of Strangers2019Drama

Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.

Lorelei
★ 6.0
Lorelei2020Drama

A man is released from prison after 15 years. He reunites with his high school girlfriend, now a single mother of three. What follows is a lyrical take on love, regret and second chances.

Gracie
★ 6.2
Gracie2007Drama

A teenager faces an uphill battle when she fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer.

Charm City Kings
★ 7.8
Charm City Kings2020Drama

Mouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence.

Salomé
★ 6.1
Salomé2013Drama

After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé comes before her king with an unreasonable demand. Beguiled by John the Baptist, and then scorned for the sake of his god, lascivious Salomé—encouraged by her mother, the vindictive, Herodias—commands that John be executed and his head delivered on a silver platter.

Holy Lands
★ 6.1
Holy Lands2019Drama

When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.

Kisses
★ 7.1
Kisses2008Drama

Two kids, Dylan and Kylie, run away from home on Christmas Day and spend a night of magic and terror on the streets of inner-city Dublin.

Strange Weather
★ 5.9
Strange Weather2016Drama

Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.

Jungleland
★ 6.4
Jungleland2020Drama

Stanley manages his boxer brother Lion but when a devastating loss in the ring leaves the pair in debt, an opportunity to recoup the cash leads to a series of misadventures that threaten to break the bond between them.

Herself
★ 6.7
Herself2020Drama

Struggling to provide her daughters with a safe, happy home, Sandra decides to build one - from scratch. Using all her ingenuity to make her ambitious dream a reality, Sandra draws together a community to lend a helping hand to build her house and ultimately recover her own sense of self.

The Safety of Objects
★ 6.5
The Safety of Objects2002Drama

In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.

Similar titles

Float
★ 5.0
Float2008Drama

Ray Fulton, a 55 year old owner of an Ice Cream shop, separates from his long-time wife and decides to move in with his 2 bachelor employees. As a result, all are forced to reassess their priorities.

A Lake
★ 6.5
A Lake2008Drama

The action unfolds in a country about which we know nothing, a land of snow and forests, somewhere in the North. A family lives in an isolated house near a lake. Alexi, a young, pure-hearted man, is a woodcutter. Occasionally suffering from epileptic seizures and overcome by an ecstatic state, he is one with the nature around him. Alexi is very close to his younger sister, Hege. Their blind mother, father, and younger brother, silently observe this uncontrollable love. One day a stranger arrives, a young man slightly older than Alexi.

Self Medicated
★ 5.8
Self Medicated2005Drama

Based on true events. On the edges of Las Vegas, 17-year-old Andrew's life is spiraling out of control. Unable to cope with the loss of his father, Andrew's descent into drugs and violence is gaining momentum, and the once promising young man is now headed for self-destruction. Andrew's mother, helpless to control her son and fighting an addiction of her own, refuses to watch idly as her only child destroys himself. As a last resort, she hires a private company to forcibly kidnap and confine him in a locked-down and corrupt psychiatric hospital. As Andrew is subjected to the secret physical and emotional abuses of the program something inside him is re-awakened. He must somehow get free to save what's left of his life, but to do that, he knows he must first face his own demons head-on.

The Saddest Music in the World
★ 6.9
The Saddest Music in the World2003Drama

In Depression-era Winnipeg, a legless beer baroness hosts a contest for the saddest music in the world, offering a grand prize of $25,000.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
★ 7.0
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning1960Drama

A 22-year-old factory worker lets loose on the weekends: drinking, brawling, and dating two women, one of whom is older and married.

Travellers and Magicians
★ 7.0
Travellers and Magicians2003Drama

A young government official, named Dondup, who is smitten with America (he even has a denim gho) dreams of escaping there while stuck in a beautiful but isolated village. He hopes to connect in the U.S. with a visa out of the country. He misses the one bus out of town to Thimphu, however, and is forced to hitchhike and walk along the Lateral Road to the west, accompanied by an apple seller, a Buddhist monk with his ornate, dragon-headed dramyin, a drunk, a widowed rice paper maker, and his beautiful daughter, Sonam.

Wonderful Town
★ 6.1
Wonderful Town2007Drama

Local girl Na runs a small hotel where every day is more of less the same until Ta arrives one day. Ta is an architect from the city who has come to oversee the building of a new development and very slowly the two build a friendship that develops into something more romantic.

The System Within
★ 3.2
The System Within2006Drama

Tony "Wise" Good, is an internationally famous model. He fought his way out of the inner city and rocketed straight to the top. He had it all... The career, the trophy wife, fame, fortune and all the luxuries that come with success. But his swift rise to the top did not take him high enough to protect him from the sudden fall he was about to experience. The corrupt corporate world, the government's support and participation in that corruption, and the jealousy and greed of people he knew best, all lead to a rapid downward spiral into a living hell.

Trust
★ 6.8
Trust1990Drama

After being thrown away from home, pregnant high school dropout Maria meets Matthew, a highly educated and extremely moody electronics repairman. The two begin an unusual romance built on their sense of mutual admiration and trust.

Choking Man
★ 5.5
Choking Man2006Drama

The social anxiety of a morbidly shy Ecuadorian dishwasher working in a Queens diner provides the psychological engine that powers this blend of drama and magical realism.

Permanent Vacation
★ 5.9
Permanent Vacation1981Drama

In downtown Manhattan, twentysomething Allie, whose father is not around and whose mother is institutionalized, is a big Charlie Parker fan. He almost subconsciously searches for meaning in his life and meets some idiosyncratic characters along the way.

Conventioneers
★ 3.7
Conventioneers2005Drama

At the 2004 Republican Nation Convention, love blooms between a Republican delegate and a Democrat protesting the event.

Ballast
★ 7.0
Ballast2008Drama

A single mother and her embattled son struggle to subsist in a small Mississippi Delta township. An act of violence thrusts them into the world of an emotionally devastated highway store owner, awakening the fury of a bitter and longstanding conflict.

Written By
★ 5.4
Written By2009Drama

A lawyer who is killed in a car accident finds himself resurrected as a character in his daughter's novel.

Gardener of Eden
★ 5.3
Gardener of Eden2007Drama

When a young deli-counter clerk and general slacker in New Jersey accidentally saves a young woman from a serial rapist, he becomes convinced that his new role in life is to become a vigilante.

Love & Sex
★ 6.2
Love & Sex2000Drama

When her rather explicit copy is rejected, magazine journalist Kate is asked by her editor to come up with an article on loving relationships instead, and to do so by the end of the day. This gets Kate thinking back over her own various experiences, and to wondering if she is in much of a position to write on the subject.

Septem8er Tapes
★ 6.3
Septem8er Tapes2004Drama

One year after 9/11, an American journalist travels to Afghanistan in an effort to learn the truth about the search for Osama bin Laden.

Steel City
★ 5.5
Steel City2006Drama

After a tragic accident caused by the truck of the middle-aged Carl Lee where a woman dies with a crushed stern, he is arrested and sent to the county jail. His son PJ, who works washing dishes and cleaning tables in a restaurant, feels lost, without financial support to keep his father's house, and is fired from his job and evicted from his house.

This Is My Father
★ 6.1
This Is My Father1999Drama

When schoolteacher Kieran Johnson discovers that his father was not a French sailor (as he had been led to believe) but rather an Irish farmer, he looks to his mother for answers. When she refuses to provide any, Kieran travels to Ireland.

Raising Victor Vargas
★ 6.8
Raising Victor Vargas2003Drama

Victor, a Lower East Side teenager, as he deals with his eccentric family, including his strict grandmother, his bratty sister, and a younger brother who completely idolizes him. Along the way he tries to win the affections of Judy, who is very careful and calculating when it comes to how she deals with men.

Your favorites

Recently viewed

Watch

Choose an authorized server.

Full video from an operator-configured authorized source. Official trailers use a separate player. If a server fails, retry or select another authorized server.

Legal watch options

Official trailer

Trailer preview only. Press Play to start.

Privacy choices

Favorites stay in your browser. Movie images load from TMDb. YouTube trailers contact YouTube only after you allow external media and choose a trailer. Advertising consent, if ads are enabled, is managed separately by the operator’s certified CMP.

Privacy policy

After allowing external media, choose the trailer button to load its player.