''White on Rice'' is a 2009

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Dave Boyle Dave Boyle (born 1982) is an American director, writer, editor, and actor. He has written and directed several movies that utilize primarily Asian or Asian-American casts, including the feature films ''Big Dreams Little Tokyo'' (2006), ''White ...

and starring Hiroshi Watanabe, Nae Yuuki, Mio Takada,

James Kyson Lee James Kyson (born December 13, 1975) is a South Korean-born American actor best known for his television work. Best known for his role as Ando Masahashi on the NBC television series ''Heroes'', his guest appearances on television series include ...

, and

Lynn Chen Lynn Chen () is a Taiwanese-American actress and singer. She is best known for playing Vivian Shing in the film ''Saving Face (2004 film), Saving Face'', a role for which she won the "Outstanding Newcomer Award" at the 2006 Asian Excellence Awar ...

. The film had its world premiere at the 27th annual

San Francisco Asian American Film Festival CAAMFest, known prior to 2013 as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), is presented every March in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States as the nation’s largest showcase for new Asian American and Asia ...

on 17 March 2009.

Plot

Jimmy loves dinosaurs and sleeps on the top bunk. Unfortunately, Jimmy is 40 and shares that bunk with Bob, his 10-year-old nephew. Freshly divorced, Jimmy lives with his sister Aiko and her family while boldly searching for a new wife. His brother in-law, Tak thinks he's a disaster. And although Jimmy may lack social grace, he is convinced the best years of his life are just beginning. His plan seems like it’s all falling into place when Tak's beautiful niece Ramona moves in. But once Jimmy sets his sights on stealing her from his best friend Tim, he sees his intentions go hilariously awry.

Cast

* Hiroshi Watanabe as Jimmy * Nae Yuuki as Aiko * Mio Takada as Tak *

as Ramona *

as Tim * Justin Kwong as Bob *

Pepe Serna Pepe Serna (born July 23, 1944) is an American film and television actor and artist. Serna's first break in movies came in 1970 on the Roger Corman directed film ''The Student Nurses''. Over the years Serna has appeared in over 100 films. In t ...

as Professor Berk *

Joy Osmanski Joy Osmanski is a South Korean-born American actress. She is best known for her wide range of comedic roles on the TV shows ''The Loop (U.S. TV series), The Loop'', ''Samantha Who?'', ''True Jackson, VP'' and ''Devious Maids''. Joy is also known ...

as Mary * Cathy Shim as Betty * David Christenson as Waiter * Ron Elliot as Nathan * Kayako Takatsuna as Shiho * Jimmy Chunga as Stephens * Jennifer Klekas as Susan * Bruce Campbell as Muramoto (voice) * Kitana Baker as Lingerie Saleswoman

Production

The film was primarily shot in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, Utah, with a few locations in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

Release

''White on Rice'' became a festival favorite during the festival season of 2009. Its festival screenings included the

Cleveland International Film Festival The Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) is an annual film festival based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is the largest film festival in Ohio. It was first held in 1977, showing eight films over a period of eight weeks at the Cedar Lee Theatre. ...

, the

Newport Beach Film Festival The Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) is an annual film festival in Newport Beach, California, typically held in late April. In 2022, it was announced that the festival have permanently changed its date to be held in October, as the festival beg ...

, the

Woodstock Film Festival The Woodstock Film Festival is an American film festival that was launched in 2000 by filmmakers Meira Blaustein and Laurent Rejto with the goal to bring high quality independent film to the Hudson Valley region. The festival takes place each fa ...

and the São Paulo Film Festival. It was especially well received at Asian themed film festivals such as the

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) – formerly known as VC FilmFest – is an annual film festival presented by Visual Communications (VC). It was established in 1983 by Linda Mabalot as a vehicle to promote Asian Pacific Ameri ...

where

and Joel Clark received awards for their

screenplay ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fe ...

and 13-year-old Justin Kwong received an award for his acting, and the

San Diego Asian Film Festival The San Diego Asian Film Festival ( SDAFF) is an annual event organized by Pacific Arts Movement (formerly the San Diego Asian Film Foundation) that takes place every November in San Diego, California. Background SDAFF is the flagship event for ...

where it won the Audience Award. The film was self distributed through director Boyle's company Tiger Industry Films and

Variance Films Variance Films is a privately held film distribution company founded in 2008 that uses an innovative model of self-distribution combined with select elements of traditional theatrical distribution to allow filmmakers to achieve quality theatrical ...

and premiered on September 11, 2009 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

at the Laemmle Sunset 5 and in Irvine. The film subsequently traveled throughout the country playing in theaters in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hawaii, Salt Lake City, Denver, San Diego. A DVD release was scheduled for 2010.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 45% based on reviews from 11 critics, with an

average rating In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

of 6/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* *
Interview With Director
{{DEFAULTSORT:White On Rice 2009 comedy films 2009 films Films about Japanese Americans Films shot in Utah Variance Films films Comedy films about Asian Americans 2000s English-language films 2000s American films