Ping Pong Playa (2007)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Jessica Yu

Writers:

Jimmy Tsai (writer)
Jessica Yu (writer)

Genre:

Comedy | Family | Sport

Tagline:

Don't just win. Destroy.

Plot:

A kid dreams of playing professional basketball in order to escape his dead-end job, living in the suburbs, his bossy older brother and running his Mom's ping pong classes. |

Plot Keywords:

Ping Pong | Asian American

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Jimmy Tsai	...	Christopher 'C-Dub' Wang
Roger Fan	...	Michael Wang
Shelley Malil	...	D. B. Reddy
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alexander Agate	...	Loser kid 1
Percival Arcibal	...	Teenage Ping Pong Player
William Behlendorf	...	Another Kid
Adam Bobrow	...	Dan Furlie
Joey Brander	...	Kid-Basketball Player
Romeo Brown	...	Kevin
Smith Cho	...	Jennifer
Martin Chow	...	Jerry Lin
Catherine Dao	...	Mrs. Sun
Jordan Green	...	Loser Kid
Cici Lau	...	Mrs. Chen
Jim Lau	...	Mr. Wang
Scott Lowell	...	Tom
Peter Paige	...	Gerald
Khary Payton	...	JP Money
Javin Reid	...	Prabakar
Jordan Walker Ross	...	Basketball Kid
Esther Song	...	Miss Chinatown
Joseph Stephens Jr.	...	Referee
Jason Stuart	...	Doctor
Elizabeth Sung	...	Mrs. Wang
Elan Tom	...	Wilson
Andrew Vo	...	Felix
Stephnie Weir	...	Cheryl Davis

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language, including some sexual remarks and drug references.

Runtime:

Canada:96 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:PG | USA:PG-13

Company:

Cherry Sky Films

Movie Connections:

References "The Dukes of Hazzard" (1979)

Soundtrack:

Wake Up Call

Real Chicken Soup for the Asian American Soul

As a Chinese male growing up North America, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. There are very few mainstream Asian American movies produced in the US, despite the large Asian community. Often, those that are made have a great deal of stereotypes and are made by non asians. The movie validated a lot of my feelings growing up in a traditional Chinese household, yet within an American cultural environment.

I liked this movie because it played against stereotype and made fun of the stereotypes. Real life can be really cheesy sometimes, and this movie had a lot of cheese.

From the beginning, I was startled to see a Chinese face on TV actually talking like a real person in real life, and not like a trained TV personality as a news anchor. And C-dub's character just grew on me. It was real and funny. The kids are cute. His parents were like real Chinese parents. The older smart medical brother is a stereotype but played for laughs. Even Ms Chinatown didn't look like she spoke Chinese. The Chinese would slip into the English/Chinese words in the same sentence. And thats how it really is in real life. It doesn't make sense, it lacks continuity, but its real.