A 2009 comedy "White on Rice" opens with a badly-acted samurai movie (one part dubbed by Bruce Campbell), and a Japanese-American family watching it on TV. They are 10 year-old boy Bob (Justin Kwong), their parents Tak (Mio Takada) and Aiko (Nae), and Aiko's recently divorced brother, Jimmy. Jimmy is having fun, obviously, while it seems Tak, serious-minded, seems not very happy.
Tak is really unhappy about his brother-in-law's freeloading, but carefree Jimmy does not even notice it and Aiko doesn't just care. That's when Tak's niece Ramona (Lynn Chen) moves in, with whom Jimmy falls in love at first sight. But everything Jimmy does to impress her ends up with disasters ... to the extent that Ramona thinks he is a "stalker" - even though Jimmy does not think so.
It is extremely hard for any actor to play the character like insensitive and childish Jimmy, a 40-year-old man who refuses to grow up. Some may find Hiroshi Watanabe's "comic" performances funny or even hilarious. I didn't. I simply find Jimmy's character obnoxious. Sorry, I know this is a light comedy, but this is too much for me.
Luckily, director Dave Boyle has managed to assemble talented actors here including Nae Yuuki (credited as Nae, "Letters from Iwo Jima"), Lynn Chen, Pepe Serna and James Kyson Lee (known as Ando of NBC TV series "Heroes"). James Kyson Lee delivers solid acting as Jimmy's co-worker, but he has little to do in the film's thin subplot. The best thing of the film is without doubt Justin Kwong as Bob, the couple's smart child, who steals every scene he is in.
The film's interesting setting about Japanese family living in Salt Lake City suburbia is almost ruined by Jimmy's endlessly annoying antics.
