Larger than life, 'The Year of the Yao' hits theaters
By The Associated Press
You may think you know -- as rock stars, starlets and athletes say on MTV -- but you have no idea.
After "The Year of the Yao," which plays like a feature-length version of MTV's "Diary," you won't have much more of an idea, but you'll have a good time.
The documentary about Yao Ming -- the 7-foot-6 Houston Rockets center -- follows the National Basketball Association's first Chinese player from his selection as No. 1 draft pick in 2002 through his rookie season. Because co-directors James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo made it with help from the NBA, you don't get a warts-and-all depiction. But Yao, who was 22 then, is a fascinating subject, if only because he's such an anomaly.
He has a billion people at home watching him as a cultural symbol and international ambassador. He has the American media scrutinizing his every move. He has a new language to learn and (former) coach Rudy Tomjanovich's complex play-calling system.
Then there is his day job: competing in the NBA, with a far more aggressive physicality than he's ever experienced. Even the hand shake-shoulder bump greeting he receives upon meeting his teammates looks awkward on him.
Yao handles it with grace and good nature with help from his parents, both former basketball stars in China, and his interpreter, a relationship that becomes the film's most compelling element.
Colin Pine, a then-28-year-old Baltimore native with a love of Chinese culture, starts out helping Yao during news conferences, but becomes his tour guide through American culture, acting as a confidant and brother figure.
Colin becomes our tour guide, walking us through the season. They're completely different people from vastly different worlds, but become close through sheer necessity and a shared love of basketball. It's sweet and unexpected to watch to their friendship develop.
Watching Yao's game develop is something else. After playing his whole life with a culturally ingrained sense of teamwork, he comes off as somewhat of a bust at first to American fans for being too nice.
"I guess people might have thought he was a big clumsy oaf," Pine concedes after Yao's weak showing during the Rockets' season opener against the Indiana Pacers.
Charles Barkley, a former Rockets star, takes it further. "Yao Ming made Shawn Bradley look like Bill Russell," he says on TNT, pledging to kiss co-host Kenny Smith's butt if Yao ever scores 19 points. (He does, and Barkley is forced to kiss a donkey's posterior on TV. Yao laughs it off, and seems comfortable making fun of his larger-than-life image.)
"The Year of the Yao" is enthralling in the same way celebrity reality TV is -- for the voyeuristic pleasure of watching famous people during unguarded moments. Yao doesn't reveal much, but we get to see the toll his frenzied schedule takes on him, especially during festivities such as the All-Star Game, where he beat Shaq in voting to win the spot as starting center.
"The Year of the Yao" feels truncated. An epilogue would have been nice, detailing the stats for his rookie year. Yao gets on a plane for China, the Rockets play the Sacramento Kings in an exhibition game in Shanghai last October (the first time two NBA teams played each other in the country), and that's it.
Watching the movie, you'd think it was a one-year deal -- "Yao Ming's Big Adventure." Meanwhile, he's averaging 18.3 points a game, leading the Rockets into the playoffs. Again.
"The Year of the Yao" is rated PG. 1/2 out of four