Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Ping Pong Playa Blu-ray Movie Review

A Different Way to Get SERVED

Reviewed by Michael Reuben May 31, 2012

Ping Pong Playa may appear to be about a particular sport, but it's really about the comedy that results when cultures clash. One is traditional and rooted in family; the other is newfangled and doesn't want to be weighed down with antique baggage. In other words, the film is an updated "spin" (sorry!) on the classic immigrant's tale, and the tension is right there in the title's juxtaposition of a big-time "playa" with a recreational pastime conducted with miniature paddles. Still, as the Chinese-American hero's father insists, the Chinese invented the game. Perfecting one's expertise is a matter of ethnic pride.

Director Jessica Yu, who'd achieved critical success with the documentary In the Realms of the Unreal (2004), wanted to make a light comedy, and she was intrigued by the character of a trash-talking athlete that co-producer Jimmy Tsai created for a series of mock web ads touting Venom Sportswear, his own fledgling line. It was Joan Huang of Cherry Sky Films, the production company for In the Realms of the Unreal, who suggested ping pong as a unifying element, because so many households have a table, even if it isn't often used. Yu and Tsai co-wrote the script, utilizing every cliche of the immigrant assimilation genre they could fit in and poking fun at stereotypes on all sides, but Tsai had to be persuaded to play the lead. He was a production accountant for Cherry Sky, and he'd made the Venom ads solely as a means to publicize the company. Yu, however, saw a natural-born actor.

The result of this group collaboration was released to theaters independently, which means it didn't receive wide distribution, but the Blu-ray from Image Entertainment provides as good an experience as any theater.

Twenty-something Christopher "C-Dub" Wang (Tsai) dreams of NBA stardom. This puts him in good company with Chevy Chase's Fletch and most characters played by Billy Crystal, but C-Dub doesn't just yearn to be tall enough to dunk the ball against top professional players. He also imagines himself enjoying the perks of stardom, giving interviews and holding forth in the fulsomely expressive lingo of an urban street punk. In his real life, C-Dub sleeps late, plays video games, hangs out with his friend JP Money (Khary Payton) and, when he does venture onto the court, plays basketball against kids, because those are the only opponents short enough to give him the requisite advantage.

If C-Dub is the n'er-do-well of the Wang family (and be careful how you pronounce the name, or he'll correct you), then his older brother Michael (Roger Wan) is the favorite son and star. Clean-cut, respectably attired, a successful doctor and eligible bachelor, Michael also routinely wins the annual local ping pong championship. He does this not for love of the game but because the notoriety is good for business at his parents' sporting goods store and the ping pong classes taught by his mother (Elizabeth Sung).

When Michael and his mother are both injured in a freak traffic accident (one for which C-Dub bears some measure of blame), Mr. Wang (Jim Lau) insists that the younger son take over his mother's class and, if necessary, assume his brother's place in the competition. C-Dub hates the idea, but it begins to appeal to him when he realizes that his pupils are kids, thereby giving him the same ability to show off that he enjoys on the basketball court, not to mention an opportunity to hustle both the kids and their friends at ping pong. Also, one of the kids, Felix (Andrew Vo), has a gorgeous older sister, Jennifer (Smith Cho), on whom C-Dub has had his eye for some time. Maybe Felix will help introduce him. (Jennifer, it turns out, is smart enough to see him coming before he even rounds the corner.)

Things get serious when two rival ping pong hotshots, Gerald and Tom (Peter Paige and Scott Lowell, former stars of the American Queer as Folk), challenge C-Dub's credentials as a ping pong teacher. Worse, these two Anglos with fraudulent British accents announce their plan to set up a rival ping pong school and poach Mrs. Wang's students. The "playa" has now been called out, and C-Dub gets serious. With his older brother still recuperating, C-Dub takes his place in the annual tournament and begins intensive training under his father's tutelage. Just in case anyone is tempted to take this too seriously, Tsai and Yu have named the tournament after a rooster—the Golden Cock—and they make sure the name is featured prominently.

As in The Karate Kid, the tournament serves as a rite of passage into manhood, where C-Dub confronts and surmounts the fear of failure that has been holding him back all his life. Thankfully, nobody calls him "grasshopper" or makes him wax cars or paint fences. A playa to the end, he gets to ride in the annual parade next to Miss Chinatown (who isn't Jennifer) and dance with the entire cast through the credits, with the exception of Gerald and Tom, who have their own little coda at the very end, which you should be sure to stay for.

Ping Pong Playa Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The cinematographer for Ping Pong Playa was Frank DeMarco, a staple of independent cinema whose credits include Margin Call, Rabbit Hole and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. DeMarco is known for his work with 16mm photography, and even before I saw the IMDb technical listing for Ping Pong Playa as Super16 (which I haven't been able to confirm), I suspected origination on 16mm film, due to the slightly coarser grain structure. Of course, the good news is that the grain is intact and natural-looking on Image Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray.

With contemporary film stocks and a skilled cameraman, 16mm photography can yield a detailed and colorful image, which is what we have here. C-Dub's world is visible in all its messy glory, even in darker scenes (check out the detail in his disaster of a room, when Mr. Wang goes to wake him up), and the scenes in large groups like the class, the tournament and a bowling alley reveal individual faces and features even in long shots. Colors tend toward the bright and saturated, which is perhaps an expression of how C-Dub sees the world (or would like to). While there aren't many opportunities for the display of true black, the amount of detail indicates that black levels have been properly set. With the extras all in standard definition, the 96-minute program fits on a BD-25 without artifacts.

Ping Pong Playa Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Resisting the temptation to have ping pong balls whizzing around the room, the sound designers have kept the comedic action in the front of the soundstage. What the Blu-ray's DTS-HD MA 5.1 track delivers with genuine authority is the pulsing hip hop soundtrack with distinctive selections (some written expressly for the film) by Chops, Far East Movement, Against the Grain and others. A good subwoofer is not essential, but it will add immensely to one's experience of the film. The underscoring was provided by Jeff Beal, whose diverse credits include Ugly Betty and Monk, both of which seem perfectly apropos. The dialogue is very clearly rendered, which is not to say that it's always intelligible. I'm convinced that some of the exchanges between C-Dub and JP Money aren't meant to be understood by anyone but them.

Ping Pong Playa Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Director/Writer Jessica Yu and Writer/Co-Producer/Actor Jimmy Tsai: This is a lively conversation between two fast talkers, with Tsai getting the edge for speaking slightly faster. The two collaborators have obviously retained their enthusiasm for the project, which was Yu's first non-documentary feature and Tsai's first major stint as an actor. Their conversation ranges broadly over the details of the shoot, their personal histories, the tone they were trying to achieve, and the reactions of audiences.


• PPP: Post-Game (SD; 1.85:1, non-enhanced; 9:11): Partly a gag reel, partly footage of the cast goofing off.


• PPP: Warm-Up Drills (SD; 1.33:1; 5:09): Mock ads for Venom Sportswear, featuring C-Dub. Some of the material ended up in the film in a different form.
• Trailer (SD; 1.85:1, enhanced; 1:54): For some reason, many posters at IMDb found this trailer uninspiring, but it intrigued me a lot more than the one for Balls of Fury, which was cited more favorably.


• Cast and Crew Bios: Text screens providing background on Yu, Tsai, producers Anne Clements and Joan Huang, and production company Cherry Sky Films.

Ping Pong Playa Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Everything about Ping Pong Playa feels affectionate and authentic, but I suspect the filmmakers would be the first ones to laugh at anyone who takes the film too seriously. Yu had no higher aspiration than to make a silly comedy that just happened to be set in a Chinese-American community, because, as far as she knew, no such thing had ever been made. Now it has, and I wouldn't mind a sequel. Recommended.