Jessica Yu's Ping Pong Playa is that rare film unlikely to appeal to a director's usual fan base. Best known as a documentary filmmaker; her first feature targets a completely different audience. In it; co-writer/production accountant Jimmy Tsai plays Christopher "C-dub" Wang; a Los Angeles-based; basketball-obsessed; Chinese-American slacker. Chris shares his enthusiasm for urban culture with African-American best friend J.P. Money (Khary Payton). J.P.; in turn; has been taking Chinese-language lessons; so the cultural exchange doesn't just run one way. Unfortunately for Chris; his family lives for ping-pong; a pursuit in which he has little interest. When his mother (Elizabeth Sung; The Joy Luck Club) and brother; Michael (Roger Fan; Better Luck Tomorrow); are injured in a minor traffic accident; however; they recruit him to help run their supply store and to teach table tennis at the local community center. Since Chris has just lost a gig hawking cell phones at the mall; he's in no position to decline. Along with some Asian-American youngsters; both Chinese and East Asian; who hunger for a cool role model; Chris changes from the world's laziest human being into something that almost resembles a respectable member of society. With its antic humor and underage hijinks; Yu's self-proclaimed popcorn comedy offers more mainstream appeal than her inventive documentaries In the Realms of the Unreal and Protagonist (she won the Oscar for non-fiction short Breathing Lessons). If the loud-mouthed Chris can be fairly off-putting at first; her affectionate representation of his multicultural world rings true. --Kathleen C. Fennessy