Ping Pong Playa Lover
When I stepped into the film office to interview director Jessica Wu and writer/lead Jimmy Tsai of Ping-Pong Playa, I could already sense the excitement from the filmmakers. Jimmy was enthusiastic to talk about his role as well as his involvement in Cherry Sky Productions, the Asian-American company that produced the film. Jessica was calm and simultaneously ecstatic about all the good feedback she has received at film festivals and screenings. It’s a comedic romp, a sports film.
Jessica highlighted the fact that growing up she loved a good sports comedy. So now, what better sport to portray than Ping-Pong, a game that everyone is familiar with but not everyone is good at. The premise was a realistic glimpse of the character C-Dub (Jimmy’s former creation for a series of mock-commercials) who is a young urban Chinese American with the dream to be in the NBA. But he’s not very good at basketball.
The plot morphs into him learning Ping-Pong instead to continue the legend of his injured brother, who was once the Ping-Pong master. There is a funny sequence when C-Dub gets all the kids in shape for ping-pong, and of course he refers to them as the young “grasshoppers”. It’s a lighthearted story and the characters are all very funny, the kid actors add a very cute addition to the already peppy film. It’s set in the Southern Californian suburbs and the upbeat soundtrack mingles with the sunny surroundings.
What also makes the film unique according to the filmmakers is the fact that it’s an Asian-American film that could be appreciated by all ethnicities. C-Dub really could be any young suburban male. There is also definitely humor that is unique to Asian-Americans such as the running joke of the elusive Miss Chinatown and when the dad continuously argues that Ping-Pong was invented in China though the British characters in the film argue it is their own invention. It was packed with laughs, which always makes it fun to interview the cast and crew, who were also funny. Overall, it’s a great sports comedy!
Jimmy Tsai (writer, actor)
ASIANCE: How did it come to be that you are the co-writer and also the star? I hear it is an interesting story.
Jimmy Tsai: The character C-Dub actually came about a few years ago. I had an idea to make a series of commercials that basically made fun of these commercials I’d seen from Reebok. It was this 3 ½ or 4 year old kid who could make 20 baskets in a row or something like that, a home video, and somehow it made its way to Reebok executives and they gave him an endorsement deal out of that. I was like, “Man I could take this kid!” It was more or less to address the fact that these kids younger and younger are getting endorsement deals and can you really tell if these kids are going to be the next Michael Jordan? I don’t think it’s realistic but I wanted to spoof that whole thing, you know.
And so my friends and I had this idea of making commercials for this fictitious clothing line but then they were like if we are going to do this we might as well make a clothing line. I was like “Makes sense!” and so we did a small print run of these clothes and did this whole site. The way it came about me playing the actor is one of our producers names Joan Wong is also involved with the sportswear so when we were casting we wanted to try to find someone who could be the equivalent of Chow Yun Fat to John Woo or Bobby DeNiro to Scorsese, not that I think I’m in that category but the director/actor type thing. So they were like, if we find the guy we’ll know it and the backup would be if they didn’t find the guy I would do it. There was one guy I kind of liked more but she did (Jessica Yu) or vice-versa, so that’s how it ended up with me taking on the role of C-Dub.
ASIANCE: You are a part of Cherry Sky Productions {Better Luck Tomorrow} as a developer and more, how did the company come to work on this project?
Jimmy Tsai: I had done the series for venomsportswear.com, (check it out!) the production company that produced the movie that I had also worked for called Cherry Sky Films. We had co-produced a movie of Jessica’s called “In The Realms of The Unreal”, and had such a great experience. We were like, we have to find another project to work on with her. And we thought it would be funny to do a movie about Ping-Pong (at the time there were no other movies about it) and Jessica thought it would be great if we used this character C-Dub in the Ping-Pong Playa movie. Jessica and I started writing the script and developed it with Joan the producer. Jessica said she wanted me to be in focus during the shoot on not on writing and re-writing. I said I could handle it but she said, “I want you to focus on acting”. Jessica felt I knew the role because I had done it before as C-Dub. I was totally fine either way with it, whether they wanted to cast someone else or have me do it.
ASIANCE: Was there a conflict with you as writer turned director?
Jimmy Tsai: Oh it went wonderfully! We had a lot of fun on the shoot and the way I approached it is- because I’m more behind the scenes in terms of producing, acting, directing-the way I approached it is remembering if I was an actor what I would want to do and it would be to whatever the director says and to the fullest capability. It was great because I told Jessica “just let me know what to do and I’ll do it!” She said if I had any ideas on set just let her know and she would be open to it. She also knows exactly what she wants so I tried to do whatever to fulfill her vision.
Watch the trailer
ASIANCE: There was a very suburban, lighthearted feel to the film? What do you think of this theme?
Jimmy Tsai: Part of what we wanted to accomplish with Ping-Pong Playa was make it a bit more realistic, as far as Jessica and my upbringing. Asian-American cinema as you know, through the 90’s and the new millennium, what we see has predominantly been these dramatic films, very heavy and steeped in identity crisis themes. We said ok, if Asian American cinema is going to evolve it’s got to go above and beyond that and into genres such as comedy, or thrillers or crime.
As an Asian-American myself I was wondering how many more dramas there could be. It was a conscientious effort on our part to do something a bit more lighthearted. Also, our life experiences weren’t so overly melodramatic so we tried to convey a sense of that. For example, there is the father figure. Usually it’s a stern stoic character that doesn’t like the rebellious nature of their children. But both Jessica’s and my own father are kind of goofy. We know plenty of dads who are goofy fathers instead of stern disciplinarians.
ASIANCE: Is this film helping Asian-American cinema into the realm of mainstream comedy?
Jimmy Tsai: I certainly hope so. We tried to make it a universal movie so anyone could understand it. There certainly are some elements that are related to ethnicity and culture but we try to pepper it with universal humor. Anyone can relate to the gap between parents and children and there are many layers of comedy. For example, if you are Chinese-American, Asian-American, there is a certain level of humor you can understand. If you’re a basketball player there are other jokes in there, or for people who play ping-pong…
Ping-Pong was something unique- we felt that everyone has some kind of ping-pong story! You know, like for me, I think it was 5th or 6th grade there was a year where a friend of mine would come over after school and we would just play ping pong the whole time. Or people in college play ping-pong in their dorms. I’m finding out that people who work in offices in L.A., many have ping-pong tables in the break rooms or lunchrooms.
ASIANCE: The children actors were fabulously funny! Were they also fun to work with?
Jimmy Tsai: We were very fortunate to find those kids. There’s not a large pool of Asian American child actors. We had to put up flyers at schools and everything. I think it was a week or two before shooting that we found all three kids on the same day so we were really lucky. I think yeah, for children and child actors, it is always best to find kids who have a similar character to what they’re portraying. We just had a lot of fun!
ASIANCE: How did you develop the humor?
Jimmy Tsai: Everyone knew what kind of humor it would be, what style the dialog would be. In terms of the writing process, there was a conscientious effort on our part to keep the humor as realistic as possible. We were in agreement from page one that we didn’t want overly slapstick humor. We wanted it to be relatable. For example, his urban character, it’s always done over the top with gold Bling, pants sagging over the ankles. I have friends like C-Dub and its not the way they act.
ASIANCE: Could this take place outside of suburban Southern California?
Jimmy Tsai: I certainly think so! I know so actually. Because people identify with the character and they’re from Seattle, Texas, Pittsburgh, Chicago… I think things especially young boys have in common with the character is the dream to play NBA basketball. When you actually boil down the chances it is highly improbable.
ASIANCE: When did you first becoming interested in filmmaking? Did you see yourself getting this far?
Jimmy Tsai: I grew up in Houston Texas. I’ve been making short films since Middle School and High School. I just enjoy entertaining people. I did filmmaking on my own at college at UC Berkeley. In 8th grade my friends and I did a spoof on Wayne’s World, it was crazy. When we played it for our class, the response produced for me an indescribable feeling.
With writing, it was a moment in high school. I was at the School For Performing Arts in Houston. We wrote our own play and I remember it was supposed to be a group effort and inexplicably everyone dropped out so I wrote the entire play myself and when we performing it for this live audience it was the same thing, people performing the words you’ve written and my friend was like, “that’s all you right there” and I was like, “That’s kind of cool!” The drive has always been there, I think that’s what it takes because there are so many people who want to do it. For me it’s always been there, the drive, and I knew I would get there at some point- it’s just a matter of when and where.
ASIANCE: Next projects?
Jimmy Tsai: I worked on a documentary called the “Killing of a Fortune Cookie”; it’s playing along at festivals with Ping Pong Playa. I have many future projects. I’m a big John Woo fan. I want to try to bring back the heroic bloodshed.
ASIANCE: How do you think this film relates to Hollywood’s idea of the Asian American man? In the film there is the joke that C-Dub is worried his love interest may only like White guys but then he gets the girl.
Jimmy Tsai: I think a movie like Harold and Kumar has been great because you have these Asian American leads. The thing in Ping-Pong Playa, the jokes where Asian girls only like White guys is really just a joke that can be said in groups of Asian guys too. But at the end of the day it all boils down to the person and who they are individually. It’s still a fight to get Asian American actors and see that they’re attractive. If Cherry Sky productions, like we did with Justin Lin can help find the next Justin Lin, it’s great. It’s something we’re really proud of, making a difference.
ASIANCE: What is the distribution schedule?
Jimmy Tsai: We hit NY LA area September 5, followed by Seattle, Houston, etc. September 12th! We wanted to make a film that was good enough that you hear about it being a funny-ass movie, not just supporting “Asian American” cinema. It’s dependent upon people just spreading the word!
Jessica Yu
ASIANCE: How did this all get started?
Jessica Yu: A lot of my work is in documentary and Cherry Sky Productions had supported the finishing of one of my projects and we just hit it off so we wanted to work together. The woman who started the company asked me what I thought of doing a comedy. I had seen the short films with C-Dub and thought he was hilarious. So when she mentioned that it was my first thought. She loved the idea to do something about Ping Pong because it is a familiar sport but not many people are good.
ASIANCE: It seemed more interesting than Balls of Fury.
Jessica Yu: Oh thanks! I didn’t know that film was also being made at the same time. I saw the trailer and people were like, “there’s another ping-pong movie and I was like, “Ours is going to be different” and from what I hear it is very different.
ASIANCE: How did you come up with the characters?
Jessica Yu: When Jimmy and I were working on the script we both agreed we liked character humor. We recognize them and details we feel are authentic are the basis of the humor. With kids you have to cast kids who get it from the beginning and then try not to mess with that too much. The thing about shooting comedy is it’s really fun and when it starts not to be fun you feel the whole energy going down. We didn’t rehearse a lot on set but it worked better for us.
ASIANCE: I asked Jimmy before but do you think this could happen outside of California?
Jessica Yu: That’s a very interesting question because Jimmy and I both grew up with some awareness of being Asian American. My mother is a historian of Asian American history. That’s where we were placing our world so you have to have an area where there is a strong enough population. You probably couldn’t set it in many places in the Midwest- it’s a very Californian location.
ASIANCE: The unknown Miss Chinatown is a running joke in the film. How does that image compare to the main love interest, when we look at the women in the film?
Jessica Yu: I think the idea of Miss Chinatown was just so quaint and something people identify with Chinatown: Miss Chinatown. But I don’t know a single one of my Asian American friends who enter it. It’s kind of a mystery like “who are these people who enter” and so it’s something we joke about but it’s something so Asian-American. Then there’s the character of Jennifer who C-Dub likes because obviously she’s super-cute but she also takes Asian-American Women’s studies and we don’t get much into her character, but I like those two opposites, Miss Chinatown and then a modern girl.
ASIANCE: The humor seems universal. How did that come to be?
Jessica Yu: What we tried to do was not put a joke in or rule it out because it was more for Asian American or a general audience. We kind of just put everything in there that was reflective of the characters. We grew up Asian American but very steeped in mainstream culture. It’s a very natural mix but decided not to worry if there were jokes some people might not get. The weird thing is people would laugh at things that were unique to our own individual experience like the dad frying spam and singing Chinese Opera. That was my dad. And some people said it was like their own.
I don’t think a lot of people seeing the movie will say, “That’s a whole world I’ve never seen” but we don’t get to see it a lot, it’s unique. What also makes it universal is like how C-Dub takes himself way too seriously and that allows people to get into it more.
ASIANCE:The soundtrack is great but I could not find it yet…
Jessica Yu: Thanks! The soundtrack is being put out by Lakeshore Entertainment! I get obsessed with music when working. Sean Young our music director kept feeding me tracks. It’s a good combination of Asian-American artists, some tracks that were written specifically for us, and then some Old School! I still listen to the songs all the time.
ASIANCE: How is the audience response?
Jessica Yu: The audience response has been great. In Toronto when we opened there at the festival they have very big mixed audiences and it was just great. I could not have been happier to see people got it. But at the same time it’s always a tough thing so we’re happy to have word of mouth and it’s a bit grassroots. We have our work cut out for us but are really excited about it.
ASIANCE:What were your favorite comedies and directors growing up?
Jessica Yu: I loved Spinal Tap and I’ll think of so many others after you leave! I liked Monty Python and then ones that have some comedy in the drama. I like a good sports comedy.
It’s not that I don’t admire filmmakers, I don’t think in terms of idols. But I love Ang Lee’s films and the number one lesson from his films is no matter the situation they still act like a believable human being. He’s amazing.
ASIANCE:What are your future endeavors?
Jessica Yu: I think the main thing is that I like to work in different genres. I always have a documentary going on. Jimmy and I are writing another comedy. I work in TV and try to keep all those worlds going. I would love to make another comedy or I’m thinking of a drama set in China. I’ve got a bunch of different ideas. I tend not to be very practical when thinking of things and then very practical on the set. In the beginning I’m very open!
Opening Schedules:
9/5/08
NEW YORK
AMC Village 7, New York, NY
Regal EWalk (42nd street) , New York, NY
LOS ANGELES
Chinese Mann, Hollywood, CA
Glendale Exchange Mann, Glendale, CA
Alhambra Palace Regal, Alhambra, CA
West Park Regal, Irvine, CA
BAY AREA
Camera 12, San Jose, CA
Shattuck Landmark, Berkeley, CA
Metreon AMC, San Francisco, CA
9/12/08
SEATTLE
Lincoln Square, Bellevue, WA
Alderwood AMC, Lynwood, WA
Meridian Regal, Seattle, WA
HOUSTON
Marq E Regal, Houston, TX
First Colony AMC, Houston, TX