Director: Dave Boyle | Rated: PG-13 | Review date: 12-Jan-2010

White on Rice is Dave Boyle’s follow up to 2006′s Big Dreams Little Tokyo. I absolutely loved Big Dreams and have closely been following Boyle’s emerging career since. Needless to say, I jumped on the first opportunity to grab the Sneak-Peek Edition of White on Rice. I was not disappointed.

In the same spirit as Big Dreams, White on Rice follows a central character who is a bit of a misfit. However, rather than a refined Japanese-speaking wannabe business man, our hero here is an actual Japanese man with no real talent to speak of. Jimmy (Hiroshi Watanabe) is a 40 year old dummy who lives with his sister (Nae) and her family in America after his wife leaves him. Though a moron, Jimmy is still a likable character and often gets set up on dates by his friends and co-workers, though to little avail.

Things change when Ramona (Lynn Chen) moves in and steals Jimmy’s heart. With nothing but a love of dinosaurs to impress Ramona, Jimmy stops at nothing to win her over. Jimmy’s hijinks escalate as he moves in on Ramona in stalker-like fashion. Meanwhile, his brother-in-law Tak (Mio Takada) wants Jimmy out just as much as Jimmy wants to win the girl.

Watanabe is simply hysterical as Jimmy and really made this film for me. His idiotic and man-child-like behavior is classic, topped off by his strong Japanese accented English. The interactions with Jimmy and the female characters were the most humorous. Also notable was the young Bob, Jimmy’s nephew, played by Justin Kwong. Bob was perhaps the most unique character that provided much of the film’s wisdom. The rest of the cast was equally engaging and they all did a great job with their unique reactions and feelings towards Jimmy.

This film was non-stop funny all the way through. As mentioned, Watanabe really made this film. The ignorant loser character has been done over and over again but Watanabe’s take on Jimmy made it so unique and fresh. Aside from the film’s laugh-factor, it surprisingly contained plenty of real and emotional themes including following one’s dreams, love, family, and sticking together (like white on rice!). White on Rice is a feel-good comedy that reminds us to take care of each other and cherish the little pleasant things in life, even when they’re often in disguise.

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