Ping Pong Playa, playa!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Written by: Jed

I first came across Ping Pong Playa, during the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. Not knowing anything about film fest movies, what I see are usually based on its short blurb, or most often than not, its title. And that year the choice was between: Run Fat Boy Run, Kantoku – Banzai! (Glory to the Filmmaker!), and of course Ping Pong Playa. Surprisingly, and out of schedule constraints – I settled for Glory to the Filmmaker! It was just as advertised – Japanese chaos. And since then, I’ve seen Run Fat Boy Run – which you should also give a look, but the most memorable of the titles somehow got lost in the shuffle -  until the missing member of this blog (Anthony) recently told me I should see it. I did, and immediately felt regret. I regret the fact that I passed on seeing the movie two years ago.

Its plot is as follows (via official website):

Christopher “C-dub” Wang is a suburban guy who sports an urban swagger, waxes, political on all things Asian American, and clings to pipe dreams of a career as a pro basketball player. Blaming genetics for his failure to make the NBA, C-dub lives at home, works a dead-end job, and squirms in the shadow of his older brother, Michael, a doctor and ping pong champion.

With a family-run store devoted to all things ping pong and a mom who teaches it at the local Chinese Community Center, the Wang’s entire world revolves around the sport. But despite the family legacy, C-dub opts to spend his free time playing video games and daydreaming about get-rich quick schemes with his best friend JP Money.

C-dub is kicked back into reality when his mom and Michael are hurt in a car accident, leaving his father to watch over the store and forcing C-dub to take over his mom’s ping pong class of misfits…

But when the Wang family livelihood is threatened by a rival ping pong player’s attempts to lure the kids away, C-dub begins to take things more seriously. With the National Golden Cock Tournament coming up and an injured Michael unable to defend his title, C-dub must become the player he pretends to be and defend his family’s ping pong dynasty.

Let me start of by saying; don’t see this film if you’re looking for a thought-provoking or even meaningful story. Ping Pong Playa (as its name suggests) is the typical “stupid” comedy. It doesn’t bring anything groundbreaking to the genre, but it’s set in a context rarely approached in Hollywood, the Asian-American experience. And who better to make fun of stereotypes, than the stereotyped themselves? This film does a fantastic job of playing with the many (not only Asian) stereotypes pervasive in society today. In fact, it’s the source of many of its laugh out loud moments. There’s one particular line early in the film, that makes me wish I were Chinese just so I could use it.

While the film makes no effort to dispel any of these stereotypes, it does paint a more accurate picture of the Asian-American culture. We see the strong sense of community found within these populations. Everyone and everything in this film is intertwined. More importantly, we see a strong sense of national pride, and identity that remain in these communities despite residing on a different continent. Of course these aren’t exclusive to Asian-American populations – but it’s refreshing to see it portrayed.

Ping Pong Playa is a unique Asian-American portrayal of a coming-of-age, sports comedy. And it smashes on all fronts.

Booyah!