(USA, 2009)
Dir.: David Boyle | 35mm, 86 min.
What do you do when you're starting over in life from the bottom rung? If you're 40-year old, newly divorced bachelor Jimmy, you mooch off your younger sister Aiko’s generosity and sleep in your nephew's upper bunk until life starts coming up roses instead of weeds. There isn't much on heaven or earth that can get Jimmy to move beyond the place-holder job Tak, his much older brother-in-law, has given him at the company he runs, and to find a place of his own. Nothing, that is, until Tak's niece, Ramona (an enchanting Lynn Chen), moves in for the summer, and sends Jimmy's romantic stirrings into overdrive.
It's a case of a romanticized, one-sided May/December romance as Jimmy will do anything to make Ramona see him as something other than her Aunt Aiko's goofy, child-like older brother; even strike out on his own to find a job, a place to live and a new life. Of course, this is the least of his worries, when dashing Tim Kim enters the picture (James Kyson Lee) star of Festival 2006 hit ASIAN STORIES BOOK THREE; the hit TV show HEROES) and vies for Ramona’s affection. Will Jimmy prevail? Hiroshi Watanabe shines as the man-child Jimmy who refuses to grow up and face the world like an adult. Like Man-Child film predecessors before him — Napoleon Dynamite, PING PONG PLAYA’S C-Dub — the lovable loser is strangely, someone worth rooting for.
- Collin Chang
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