Do you want to see ‘Ping Pong Playa’?

Ping Pong Playa (2007)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 6/10
Reviews Counted: 32
Fresh: 21 | Rotten: 11

A gentle, light, kid friendly comedy about a Chinese-American hoopster turned ping pong pro, Playa is a charming but considerable digression from director Jessica Yu's previous works.

Average Rating: 6.1/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 3

A gentle, light, kid friendly comedy about a Chinese-American hoopster turned ping pong pro, Playa is a charming but considerable digression from director Jessica Yu's previous works.

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Movie Info

An aimless young Chinese-American finds his hoop dreams unexpectedly sidelined when his parents are injured in an accident and he is forced to give ping-pong lessons in the fiction feature debut of acclaimed documentary filmmaker Jessica Yu (In the Realms of the Unreal). Christopher "C-dub" Wang (Jimmy Tsai) may not be able to sink a lay-up to save his life, yet he longs to realize his lifelong goal of playing in the NBA. Add to this the fact that C-dub still lives at home and will likely never

PG-13, 1 hr. 36 min.

Drama, Art House & International, Comedy

Directed By: Jessica Yu

Written By: Jessica Yu, Jimmy Tsai

In Theaters: Sep 9, 2007 Wide

On DVD: Jan 6, 2009

IFC Films

Ping Pong Playa Trailer & Photos

More Photos (11)

Cast

Jimmy Tsai
Christopher "C-dub" Wan...
Smith Cho
Jennifer
Khary Payton
JP Money
Roger Fan
Michael Wang
Peter Paige
Gerald
Jim Lau
Mr. Wang
Elizabeth Sung
Mrs. Wang
Scott Lowell
Tom
Stephnie Weir
Cheryl
Javin Reid
Prabakar

Critic Reviews for Ping Pong Playa

All Critics (32) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (22) | Rotten (11) | DVD (6)

Charming despite requisite training sequences and a cartoonishly evil opponent.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune

| Comment

Michael Esposito

Chicago Tribune

Top Critic

The movie doesn't take its broad, jokey premise terribly far, but it manages to sustain a goofy-sweet comic energy and offers sly observations about assimilation, sibling rivalry and the art of competitive maternal bragging.

September 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times

| Comment

Sheri Linden

Los Angeles Times

Top Critic

A decidedly lightweight amusement, the first comedy from documentary filmmaker Jessica Yu is the sort of movie that works best if you keep your expectations low.

September 5, 2008 Full Review Source: New York Daily News

| Comment

Elizabeth Weitzman

New York Daily News

Top Critic

A mostly amusing, appealing family comedy about going from pretender to contender, in life as well as pingpong.

September 5, 2008 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle

| Comment

G. Allen Johnson

San Francisco Chronicle

Top Critic

Interest in Playa lies in the fact that director Jessica Yu is a documentarian with a daring taste in subjects. Yet in her first non-doc feature, she plays it safe; even the championship showdown feels polite.

September 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly

| Comment

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Entertainment Weekly

Top Critic

There's a deeper, touching acknowledgment of braggadocio as persona, how the commodified dissent of hip-hop lends itself to masking insecurities.

September 5, 2008 Comment

Nathan Lee

New York Times

Top Critic

Mostly a little shrewder about stereotypes than your typical slacker comedy, deriving its edge from Yu and Tsai's mining of the cultural specificity of Asian-America for laughs

August 8, 2009 Full Review Source: indieWIRE

| Comment

Leo Goldsmith

indieWIRE

One way to break down cultural walls is assimilation, and that's where Ping Pong Playa has its dubious triumph: it's just about as generic as the next 'loser makes good by coaching kids' comedy...[Blu-ray]

February 15, 2009 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews

| Comment

Peter Canavese

Groucho Reviews Source: Groucho Reviews

An endless stream of near-misses.

January 16, 2009 Full Review Source: DVDTalk.com

| Comment

David Cornelius

DVDTalk.com

A transparent romance flick featuring a refreshingly appealing parade of well-developed, Asian-American characters who make the movie enjoyable by turning an array of common cinematic stereotypes on their heads.

January 1, 2009 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze

| Comment

Kam Williams

NewsBlaze

Ace documentarian Jessica Yu's fictional feature debut ... is mostly funny and often cute, but it suffers a bit in comparison to the very similar Foot Fist Way ...

November 12, 2008 Comment

Andy Klein

Los Angeles CityBeat Source: Los Angeles CityBeat

Overall the movie was enjoyable but not amazing.

November 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Film Threat

| Comment

Jeff Wong

Film Threat

Gently pokes fun at model minority and athletic stereotypes, but gets repetitive and wears thin before the engaging plot finally kicks into gear.

November 1, 2008 Full Review Source: Film-Forward.com

| Comment

Nora Lee Mandel

Film-Forward.com

If you go into Ping Pong Playa' expecting a light, predictable comedy, it would be hard to come out unsatisfied.

September 29, 2008 Full Review Source: Cinematical

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Monika Bartyzel

Cinematical

Ping Pong Playa falters on formula only occasionally, but otherwise remains a consistently agreeable romp that strikes just the right chord of ironic sentimentally.

September 12, 2008 Full Review Source: Seattle Times

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Ted Fry

Seattle Times

Asian-American cinema breaks out of its identity crisis with a comedy that is competitive with the American standard while addressing social and cultural issues particular to minority audiences.

September 11, 2008 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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Bill White

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

There's no resisting the movie's antic affability or its irreverence, even with Chris's unavoidable progression toward the mature appreciation of his roots.

September 11, 2008 Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly

| Comment

Ella Taylor

L.A. Weekly

The result is has a certain silly, kid-friendly charm, and Yu astutely chose to clean up C-Dog's profane language by 'bleeping' the harsher bits with the sound of a bouncing basketball.

September 5, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

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Maitland McDonagh

TV Guide's Movie Guide

Very broad humor and sloppy storytelling pave the way to a requisite Rocky ending.

September 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine

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Susan Green

Boxoffice Magazine

Bright and hilarious, Ping Pong Playa is a so-silly-it's-smart comedy starring Jimmy Tsai, whose uproarious cinematic id, C-dub, is a character I would be happy to watch for many sequels to come.

September 4, 2008 Full Review Source: TheDivaReview.com

| Comment

Diva Velez

TheDivaReview.com

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Ping Pong Playa

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"People always think that, you know, Chinese people are only good at math, martial arts, and mu shu pork, you know? But basketball, hey, that was really my thing back in the day, you know what I'm saying? I used to play on the JV squad."Ping Pong Playa is about Christopher "C-Dub" Wang. He's an underachieving, lazy

July 9, 2011

Melvin White

Super Reviewer

Totally ridiculous and very well done : )

August 25, 2010

Lanning : )

Super Reviewer

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