JessicaYu Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Check Out Two New 'Ping Pong Playa' Clips!
Filed under: Comedy », Sports », Trailers and Clips »
Just in case you have a heart of stone and weren't taken in by the awesome Ping Pong Playa poster that Erik posted earlier this month (which is to the right), two new clips have hit the web. To refresh your memories -- this is the story of a basketball-loving Asian American who has done everything he can to remove himself from his family's ping pong ways -- until an accident and some jerky ping pongers make him reevaluate things.First up, over at Coming Soon, C-Dub (Jimmy Tsai) gets introduced to his mom's ping pong class after she gets in a car accident and can't teach. C-Dub is completely not into the thought of spending his time with these tykes, and is none too impressed when he is mistaken for his ping pong champion brother.
Meanwhile, over at MovieWeb, we get to see C-Dub get called out on his questionable behavior. See, to make this whole ping pong class more interesting, he's added betting to the mix, and the one tykes older, cute sister isn't impressed. Unfortunately, poor Free Willy gets blamed.
Ping Pong Playa hits theaters on September 5. In the meantime, check out last year's TIFF interview where Jimmy talks about his ping pong experience, and the review here.
EXCLUSIVE: 'Ping Pong Playa' Poster Premiere!
Filed under: Comedy », Independent », IFC », Fandom », Family Films », Movie Marketing », Posters »
Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for the film Ping Pong Playa (click image above to enlarge), directed by Jessica Yu (Protagonist). Starring Jimmy Tsai (who also co-wrote the script with Yu), Ping Pong Playa follows one kid who dreams about escaping his dead-end job and playing professional basketball in the NBA ... except his entire family is obsessed with the world of ping pong. His dad runs a ping pong-related store, his mom teaches the sport and his brother is a ping pong champion. Will our hero break away from the pong pressure and live out his b-ballin' dreams, or will he discover that the game he dissed was the game he missed?
In her positive review from last year's Toronto International Film Festival, Cinematical's Monika Bartyzel called Ping Pong Playa "a refreshing reversal from the usual comedic fare -- a lone Asian American beacon of laughs in a sea that usually has only spots of color." Check out the trailer after the jump. Ping Pong Playa arrives in theaters on September 5.
'Ping Pong Playa' Will Fly to Screens This Fall!
Filed under: Comedy », Independent », Sports », Deals », Distribution », Cinematical Indie »
It seemed too strange to be true. Only a handful of months after I watched Jessica Yu's excellent Protagonist, a Euripides-based story about four very different men and their manifestations of obsession, another one of her films was hitting Toronto. But it was nothing like the previous piece -- it was a fictional, comedic narrative about ping pong playing. Talk about drastic twists in themes! Ping Pong Playa' was an entirely new arena for the Oscar winner.Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that the film is finally hitting big screens outside of the festival circuit. IFC Films has picked up the US rights to the comedy, and it will head into a limited release on September 5. While you might have run the other way from Balls of Fury, Playa' is definitely worth another glance.
The film is a cute look at a basketball-obsessed slacker named C-Dub (Jimmy Tsai) who ignores his family's ping pong inclinations -- his mom runs a ping pong store and his brother is a champion. However, when both of them are injured in a car crash, he has to not only take over his mother's classes, but also put two jerky pongers in their place. It's a story we've seen before, but it's also fresh, sweet, and refreshingly smart and diverse. (Check out a review, some interviews, and the trailer.)
TIFF Interview: 'Ping Pong Playa' Writer/Director Jessica Yu
Filed under: Comedy », Independent », Festival Reports », Interviews », Cinematical Indie »
One of the most dynamic female documentarians today, Jessica Yu, has made the big jump into narrative features with the Asian American-led comedy, Ping Pong Playa'. The film is about a carefree guy named C-Dub, who would rather gripe about his missed basketball prospects than get a solid job or take up the family sport of ping pong -- that is, until his mother and brother are hurt, and he has to save the family's honor at the ping pong championship. Cinematical got a chance to chat with Jessica, after the world premiere of the film, about how she got into narrative features, what it's like to make a ping pong movie, and what's next on the docket.
Cinematical: How are you enjoying the fest so far?
Jessica Yu: Oh, it's been great.
Cinematical: Is this your first TIFF?
JY: Yeah... I had a short here a long time ago, but it was a short...
Cinematical: Sour Death Balls?
Yeah, I think it was Sour Death Balls. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was it. So anyway, it's nice to be here.
Cinematical: You used to be on the US National Fencing Team, but you ended up doing a film about ping pong. Can you tell us a little about that?
JY: Why I turned my back on my fencing brethren? Well, I think that there's just something about the idea of a less-than-marquis sport. For a while, I wanted the film to be about badminton. Thank god it's not about badminton, because trying to CGI a badminton birdie... We didn't have to CGI Jimmy [Tsai]. He trained like you wouldn't believe, so he could really play. But for some of our other actors, we had to CGI some stuff. If we had a birdie... forget it. I'm glad it didn't turn out to be that.
TIFF Review: Ping Pong Playa'
Filed under: Comedy », Theatrical Reviews », Festival Reports », Toronto International Film Festival », Cinematical Indie »
Yes, as the title suggests, Jessica Yu's latest film is about ping pong. No, it is not a documentary. Ping Pong Playa' marks the director's first foray into fiction, and as she says: "Consistency be damned." This isn't about disabilities, art, or violence. It's a simple comedy about growing up and getting serious. It's also a refreshing reversal from the usual comedic fare -- a lone Asian American beacon of laughs in a sea that usually has only spots of color.
Ping Pong Playa' is the story of Christopher "C-dub" Wang (like song, not sang). He's a plain ol' suburban American guy -- he loves eating cereal, playing video games, hanging out with his best friend, and playing basketball. The game is his big passion, and he swears that he would be in the NBA if not for his Chinese genes. Meanwhile, his family is absorbed in ping pong. His dad runs the family's ping pong store, his mom teaches it at the local Chinese Community Center, and his brother is a champion (and a doctor to boot).
Monika's Toronto Dispatch #1: Winter Gardens and Honking Trains
Filed under: Festival Reports », Cinematical Indie »
It's Sunday night, I'm bleary-eyed, and I'm waiting for the mid-TIFF energy to kick in. It might seem strange, but I always find the beginning of a festival more exhausting than the end. Having a day pass, I have the bonus of seeing the films with the eager, excited TIFF filmgoers, but I also have to schedule all my screenings before 5 P.M. This means a lot of early mornings and long lines for coffee. It also means that the first few days consist of me sleepily stumbling around, hoping that my films are engaging enough to keep me awake. Luckily enough, this year's festival is an amazing collection of solid, fun, and powerful films.
I started things off early on Friday, but I really crowned my festival experience with the premiere of My Winnipeg, Guy Maddin's surreal docu-fantasy about the cold city in Manitoba. This is looking to be my lone evening screening for the fest, and it took place in Toronto's unique Winter Garden Theatre -- the perfect place to watch some Maddin. See, this is a theater on top of the Elgin, where lots of the big films screen. That's right, here in Toronto you get multi-level, ornate theaters. You go up flight upon flight to enter a garden world -- complete with faux ivy, trees, and trellises. A premiere Guy screening also means seeing faces of Canadian film nestled in the cozy prime seats in the middle of the theatre. Actor/director Don McKellar was there with Monkey Warfare co-stars Tracy Wright and Nadia Litz. (James Rocchi reviewed the flick during last year's festival.)
I started things off early on Friday, but I really crowned my festival experience with the premiere of My Winnipeg, Guy Maddin's surreal docu-fantasy about the cold city in Manitoba. This is looking to be my lone evening screening for the fest, and it took place in Toronto's unique Winter Garden Theatre -- the perfect place to watch some Maddin. See, this is a theater on top of the Elgin, where lots of the big films screen. That's right, here in Toronto you get multi-level, ornate theaters. You go up flight upon flight to enter a garden world -- complete with faux ivy, trees, and trellises. A premiere Guy screening also means seeing faces of Canadian film nestled in the cozy prime seats in the middle of the theatre. Actor/director Don McKellar was there with Monkey Warfare co-stars Tracy Wright and Nadia Litz. (James Rocchi reviewed the flick during last year's festival.)Jessica Yu's 'Protagonist' Goes Into Limited Release Next Month
Filed under: Documentary », Independent », Distribution », Cinematical Indie »
To watch Jessica Yu's Protagonist is to open up a large trunk and find a collection of old and new mementos and stories -- ones that seem disparate, yet come together into an intriguing whole -- puppets, pictures, videos, news footage, doodles and more. It's the kind of movie that you can watch a bunch of times, and still find new bits and connections to talk about. (Check out James Rocchi's review here.) The documentary, which was picked up by IFC at Sundance, is now getting a limited national release on September 28 -- just after it opens in New York on the 26th.Yu, who won an Oscar for her short film Breathing Lessons, took an interesting approach to the film. She was originally asked to create a documentary about Euripides, the Greek playwright, but it then turned into a doc about people whose lives mimic Euripidean tragedy. While it sounds heavy and unapproachable, she actually brought together 4 seemingly opposite lives, and showed how they were similar with both heart-tugging emotion and laugh-worthy levity.
The lives are those of Mark Pierpont -- a Christian man struggling to come to terms with his sexuality (to the point that he even tried evangelism), Hans-Joachim Klein -- a German radical who found himself immersed in terrorism, Joe Loya -- a man whose troubling youth led him to rob banks and Mark Salzman -- a teen who becomes obsessed with martial arts. Yu uses Greek thematic chapters to tell their stories, and puppets to reenact some of the subject's memories. What I particularly loved was how much Salzman's story gave levity to the film (along with some more serious subject matter), but still fit right in with the progression of the story. It's definitely worth the time, so you should go and check it out next month.
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