by KAREN YOKOTA
Hokubei Mainichi

SAN JOSE — The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival’s opening night in San Jose on March 20 featured a screening of “White on Rice” at the Camera 12 Cinemas, followed by a gala reception at the San Jose Museum of Art.

The film festival returned to San Jose for the eighth year with 17 programs offering a cross-section of the finest in Asian American and Asian cinema.

The theater was packed with 305 attendees as the film’s director, Dave Boyle, and cast members Hiroshi Watanabe, Nae, Mio Takada, Kayako Takatsuna and Justin Kwong greeted the audience and took questions after the screening.

When asked how the movie got its title, Boyle said, “It comes from the slang saying ‘white on rice’ — to be on or close to something.” An example would be: “When Beard Papa opened their first shop in San Francisco, the locals were on it like white on rice.”

Divorcee’s Story

The story begins with 40-year-old Jimmy (played by Watanabe), a recent divorcee, living with his sister Aiko (Nae) and her husband Tak (Takada). Jimmy shares a bunk bed with the couple’s 10 year-old son, Bob (Kwong).

For most men at this age, this would be humiliating, but it doesn’t seem to bother Jimmy at all. He lacks social skills and manners, and throughout the film, he ventures out to replace his ex-wife with someone smarter, prettier and sexier.

Assisted by his cool and hip co-worker Tim (James Kyson Lee of “Heroes”), he wrangles dates with the women in his office, all of which end badly, and he flubs up a blind date with Shiho (Takatsuna), a friend of Aiko’s.

Worst of all, Jimmy provokes Aiko’s strait-laced, irritated and unhappy husband, who quickly loses patience with Jimmy’s freeloading and cluelessness.

As soon as Tak’s beautiful niece Ramona (Lynn Chen) temporarily moves in, Jimmy falls hard for her and tries desperately to court her. Jimmy pays Bob to draw her portrait and passes it off as his own work. He even tries to give Ramona a ride by “borrowing” Tak’s car and picking her up from school.

Jimmy follows Ramona to a Halloween party and forgets that he was supposed to take Bob trick-or-treating. A panic occurs when Bob can’t be found, and it causes everyone to take a look at how they value and relate to one another.

Q&A Highlights

Takada revealed that in the original script, Tak wasn’t supposed to be a miserable character. “But, I was extremely ill when we were filming the movie. It was easy to make Tak seem like an unhappy guy.”

Soon after filming was completed, Takada’s lucky day arrived. “I had a real cure — I had a transplant for my heart and kidney. Because of this young man, who unfortunately went brain dead, his family donated his heart and kidney. That’s why I’m standing here today.”

He concluded by saying, “It’s a privilege to watch ‘White on Rice’ for the first time tonight.”

Director Boyle is a 27-year-old Mormon from Utah who learned Japanese in Australia. As a teenager, he ventured to Australia on a missionary project and was assigned to work at a Japanese church where both English and Japanese were spoken.

“That’s what prompted me to learn the Japanese language,” he explained. “I wanted to maximize my experience with the people, so I learned how to speak and write in Japanese.”

Boyle, whose previous film was “Big Dreams Little Tokyo,” also mentioned that he’s never been to Japan.

“Dave’s Japanese is better than a lot of native speakers and writes a great script,” said Takada. “He even understands slang and can tell pretty good jokes.”

The post-screening gala was catered by a variety of local restaurants, including the Straits Café. People could mingle and munch while perusing the museum’s current exhibitions, including one by ceramicist Jun Kaneko (now through May 10) and “The Prints of Andy Warhol” (now through May 31).

Guests could also speak to the cast members of “White on Rice” and meet other actors and directors from the films showing that weekend.

March 22 marked the last day of SFIAAFF, which was held March 12 to 19 in San Francisco and Berkeley before moving to San Jose. “White on Rice” was also shown at the Sundance Kabuki Cinema in San Francisco.