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

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:PG | USA:PG-13

Company:

Cherry Sky Films

Movie Connections:

References Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Soundtrack:

I Like Cereal

Promising First Half Gives Way To Dumbed-Down Racist Rubbish

Boy, I was really enjoying this film by the halfway mark (about 50 minutes). It was funny, and the lead character was especially humorous. That was "C-Dub," played by Jimmy Tsai. It was a shock seeing an Asian-American talk like a black man with all the slang of the day, and I'm sure that was there to make us laugh.

What wasn't funny was the outright racism in the second half of the film. When are these politically-correct double-standards in the film industry going to cease? In this film, the three white people - two ping-pong players and the judge of a tournament - are all made to be villains and totally ignorant. Nobody else in the movie is portrayed like this. Imagine the outcry if this was the case and only the black people or Asians were shown to be stupid and obnoxious? Well, the film wouldn't have even made it to your theater.

Overall, this film is just embarrassingly bad. No intelligent Asian would accept this movie as anything but garbage and an insult to them, either. Too bad, because it was so promising and had some charm in the first half. Then, the ugliness of racism and the very predictable ending all dumbed this story down to a pathetic low. It explains why there are less than 10 reviews of his movie.