White on Rice is a film that has slowly but surely garnered
its fair share of buzz these past few months. I know Todd posted a brief review
over the summer and I suspect the film is going to become a substantial cult
célèbre even if it may be a while before many of you get a chance to see it.
White on Rice has become something of a festival darling and
rousing crowd pleaser throughout its extensive fest play. The film is currently being self promoted and
independently distributed by its writer/director David Boyle. So if you're
anxious to see it now, you need to go to the website and beg Dave to personally
bring it to your town.
I'm sure the
director is becoming more and more wary of all of the comparisons being made in
reviews to Napoleon Dynamite. Let me say they're unwarranted even if his
viral marketing campaign has admittedly presented WOR in a very similar vein.
In short,
WOR is a quirky fish out of water tale with a "loveable loser" in the lead. The plot revolves around Uncle Jimmy,
hilariously portrayed by Hiroshi Watanabe. Jimmy is a middle aged Japanese man
who moves back in with his sister in America after his wife divorces him. But there's good reason why Jimmy is now
single and that's where the big catch comes.
Uncle Jimmy
is actually anything but loveable. Oh, he is a loser through and through but he
possesses few, if any redeeming character traits. Comparing WOR to Napoleon Dynamite based on surface
traits does the film a great injustice.
It's a far far darker movie, shockingly so. I'd rather liken it as a
cross between Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Tokyo
Sonata and Observe and Report.
Uncle Jimmy
isn't just goofy, he's mentally retarded and dangerous. He's brash, rude,
selfish, and often throws violent temper tantrums. His actions go far beyond
the silly man child antics of any Will Farrell role. And since the rest of the
characters are firmly rooted in reality, his over the top behavior becomes all
the more disturbing.
Like Seth
Rogen's violently bi-polar mall cop comedy, I think many ScreenAnarchy Readers are
going to find a lot of laughs in the film's wildly aberrant tone, even if the
material is actually PG friendly. Yeah,
wrap your mind around that for a moment.
But the
heart of the film, or at least, its first two acts, isn't just watching Jimmy
continually fuck things up. The film is
really about a family falling apart at the seams much like Tokyo Sonata. Native
Japanese actress, Nae Yuuki gives a terrific performance as Jimmy's responsible
sister, Aiko. She dotes on her incompetent brother like a mother while ignoring
her own pre-pubescent son, Bob, finely played by newcomer, Justin Kwong.
Meanwhile,
Aiko's husband Tak also becomes increasingly depressed as his wife spends all
of her affections on Jimmy.
All of the characters
are fully fleshed out and impeccably well written, a refreshing thing as all of
the main cast are Asian or Asian American, even more surprising as the film was written and directed by a
white man in his mid-twenties, a Mormon no less.
Let's get
straight to the point, David Boyle is a Japan-o phile, something many of you Twitch
guys out there can relate to. But David is an entirely different breed of
Japan- o- phile. His background is not in anime, J-Horror, or any of the other
things that attract many of us here. No, Dave was a Mormon missionary who
happened to become fluent in Japanese while staying in Australia. And if you haven't seen his debut film, Big Dreams, Little Tokyo, I strongly
recommend you track it down and watch it immediately.
I caught Dave's
first film at the Philadelphia International Film Festival a few years back and
was impressed. The film's synopsis is one that initially made me cringe and I
often find people rolling their eyes at me when I describe it to them. Dave stars in it as a creepy Japon-ophile
trying to make a career teaching Japanese to the Japanese in Los Angeles. Of course, he falls in love with a cute
Japanese nurse in the process.
But here's
the thing, Dave's first film is smart, genuine, and very sincere. The humor is
character driven and consistently avoids easy jokes as does White on Rice. It was of the rarest film experience for me,
a heartwarming and family friendly comedy about cross cultural differences that
I thoroughly enjoyed. We had to add
screenings at the Philadelphia Film Festival after selling out due to positive word
of mouth. So don't just take my word for it. This is all the more reason why
White on Rice's first hour had my jaw on the floor.
In many
ways, Uncle Jimmy is the physical incarnation of every horrible stereotype of
Japanese men. Although a lot of it is going to go over most mainstream viewers'
heads. Once again, Dave doesn't go for
the obvious jokes. Jimmy is not a retread of Mickey Rooney's terrifying portrayal
of Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffanys.
No, the cultural humor here is far more
informed. It made me recall a controversial
lecture I once attended by a published and highly regarded anthropologist who
was quoted as referring to Japan as a nation of over-educated 12 year old adults, a county of men incapable
of taking care of themselves who marry less for love than to find a replacement
for their mother. This historian claimed
that as a reason behind pedophilic pornography and manga being so prevalent in
mainstream Japanese culture.
I'm not
agreeing with any that, and it's foolish to make such sweeping statements on an
entire culture but Uncle Jimmy is the embodiment of everything you might find
on a Fuckedgaijin.com message board and reminded me of that lecture. Jimmy moves
to America after running out of a 3 month supply of pre-prepared meals his ex
wife left him. He is unable to drive, cook, or even tie his own shows, (he
wears Velcro, again, like a mentally retarded person). He has an unhealthy
obsession with dinosaurs, and there's a lot of underlying humor suggesting that
he's a pedophile. He has fantasies about his significantly younger room-mate
and niece in law still dressed in her middle school clothes making him brown
bagged lunches.
This type
of material may be polarizing for some viewers as there were a few audience
members at the Austin Asian American Film Festival who felt offended. Yet, no
other character in the film shares these characteristics. It's an odd thing and I'm still a bit
conflicted on it as a whole. Although,
I'll admit I laughed, and I laughed a lot.
The film
goes places I never would have imagined. If you think you know where it's
heading, trust me, you don't, and that was really refreshing. But the third act is a bit of a let down. WOR
suddenly shifts to a much sweeter, nicer tone closer to that of Big Dreams, Little Tokyo. This is after
Jimmy almost accidentally, and violently murders his brother in law. Everything
wraps up a bit too nicely ala dues ex machina.
It really betrays all that comes before it although that's not to say it
totally diminishes the previous two acts. I just wished the tone was more consistent.
Technically speaking, White on Rice
is an noticeable advancement from Big
Dreams, Little Tokyo. Despite my qualms with the story, David's direction
has improved by leaps and bounds.
Oh, Bruce
Campbell also provides his voice in a dubbed Samurai film within the film. So
obviously, Dave's got full nerd cred here.
Again, White on Rice is not an Asian Napoleon Dynamite. It may be an Asian What About Bob or even an Asian Clifford, but it is not Napoleon Dynamite. That's probably an
awesome thing depending on who you are, and here at ScreenAnarchy, I'll suspect that
it's the former rather than the latter.