The Year of the Yao (2005)

Also known as (wo bu zhi dao)

Director: James Stern, Alex Del Deo
Genre: Documentary
Language: English
Cast:

• Collin Pine
• Kobe Bryant
• Yao Ming

Rating: 7.5/10
Review:
This film is a documentary that follows Yao Ming in his first year as an NBA rookie on the Houston Rockets. The documentary provides a close-up of many angles of Yao's life during the 2002-2003 NBA season--the endless autograph signings, the long hours on the road, the late-night hotel cravings for Shanghainese food, at home with his family in Houston, the endless autograph sessions, and of course, the games themselves.

Yao is obviously the star of the film, but he is joined by a lot of other figures who explain the significance of his move to America: his ex-ball player mother and father, his teammates, 'Team Yao', who marketed Yao as an athlete to the United States, and a slew of other athletes and celebrities.

For me, the most entertaining parts of the film featured Yao and his young, nervous personal translator; Colin Pine. Throughout the season, Pine not only translates between Yao and his teammates, but serves as sort of a cultural tour guide who teaches Yao how to live in American. There are a ton of priceless scenes where Pine teaches Yao about Americanisms such as 'road rage' and 'soul food', and how to order Chinese food through room service in a hotel room.

I have to admit that Colin is a guy who I admire a lot and can relate to: he's pretty young, but his Putonghua is awesome! :)

Overall, the film is a highly entertaining documentary that does a great job at highlighting all the pressure that Yao carried through his rookie year (namely, the hopes of 1.3 billion people), and showing how gracefully Yao carried himself throughout his struggles. You don't have to enjoy basketball to enjoy this film--it stands on its own as a great cultural documentary about a man faced with living in two different cultural universes.

I would have liked to see a bit more focus on Yao's life BEFORE him came to the States. The movie does leave a bit of detail out about Yao's childhood and his early basketball career. I guess you can't include everything in a documentary, though, and the DVD does include a good deal of deleted scenes (a hilarious one on Yao learning to drive, for example).

For those more interested about Yao's life, particularly on parts that the movie leaves out, I recommend, "Yao: A Life in Two Worlds", which is a great book in itself.

By ericjensen. Posted on April 1st, 2006.