Check out Andrew’s post on AML for a fascinating article from SFGate.

Reviews:
San Francisco Chronicle
Walter Addiego, Chronicle Staff Writer, Sept. 18. 4 stars (out of five-little man clapping)
A cockeyed tale about a Japanese nebbish in suburban America, “White on Rice” will wring some laughs out of anyone but the most humor-impaired. All you need is a willingness to put up with another infantile adult male movie character, and a taste for goofball, “Napoleon Dynamite” humor.
Our 40-year-old hero, Jimmy (Hiroshi Watanabe), bunks with his 10-year-old genius nephew (Justin Kwong), who’s clearly the more mature of the pair. Dumped by his wife in Tokyo, Jimmy now lives in the United States with his doting sister (the single-named Nae), and her dyspeptic businessman-husband (Mio Takada).
Jimmy wants a new wife, but he’s socially clueless and his English has its ups and downs, so he turns for advice to his cool friend Tim (James Kyson Lee). Unfortunately, Jimmy has his eye on the acerbic Ramona (Lynn Chen). He’s not her type, to put it mildly, and she’s interested in Tim. There’s another plot strand involving Jimmy’s love of dinosaurs and urgent need for employment.
Director Dave Boyle (”Big Dreams Little Tokyo”) has said that Jimmy and company wouldn’t be out of place in the funny pages, and he’s right.
Watanabe’s appealing work compensates for some of the film’s obvious budget limitations. And as usual with goofball humor, there are jokes here that land with a thud.
Fans of horror icon Bruce Campbell will be happy to learn that he provides one of the voices in the film’s parody of a cheesy samurai movie.

Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas, Sept. 11, 2009.
Buffoonery, and not in a good way
It’s revealing that writer-director Dave Boyle has said that in a way he fulfilled his lifelong ambition to be a cartoonist with the live-action “White on Rice” because his people in this wan, trite and increasingly silly comedy are little more than stick figures.
Hiroshi Watanabe stars as Jimmy, a feckless, unemployed 40-year-old divorced man living with his sister Aiko (Nae) and his disapproving brother-in-law Tak (Mio Takada) in their suburban Salt Lake City home. The film opens amusingly with the family watching a badly dubbed lowbrow samurai movie in which Jimmy had starred years before, but it swiftly becomes draggy and uninspired.
The film reaches its nadir when Tak slips on the kitchen floor where Jimmy has been doing an exceedingly messy job of peeling carrots, falling right into the knife Jimmy has been using. Rather than calling 911, Jimmy puts the seriously wounded Tak into a wheelbarrow, apparently headed for a hospital. Jimmy proceeds to paint himself as a hero when actually it is a passing motorist who saves the day. This act of stupidity compounded by self-promotion is beyond talented comedian Watanabe to redeem with humor — let alone the picture itself.

Variety: Its amusingly off-kilter humor underserved by pedestrian packaging, Dave Boyle’s sophomore feature, “White on Rice,” is the kind of comedy that hinges on a protagonist near-imbecilic in all matters social, physical and especially romantic. Focusing on a Japanese emigre whose rudimentary English is the least of his shortcomings, this genial effort scores laughs but could have used some of the presentational snap of not-dissimilar exercises like “Napoleon Dynamite.” Self-distributing later this year, the low-budgeter has modest theatrical prospects that should presage improved ancillary exposure. Hajime, aka Jimmy (Hiroshi Watanabe), is a 40-year-old odd-jobber and bit-part actor (glimpsed in a mock samurai pic dubbed by Bruce Campbell and Pepe Serna) who moved to the U.S. when his ex-wife stopped taking care of him in Tokyo. Living with tolerant sister Aiko (Nae) and brainiac nephew Bob (Justin Kwong), he’s a torment — even a health hazard — to his brother-in-law, Tak (Mio Takada). Tactless, childish and skill-free, Jimmy is oblivious to his haplessness, especially when pursuing comely cousin Ramona (Lynn Chen). The script could have used another polish, but a bigger problem is the nondescript lensing and staging, which dampen the material’s quirky appeal.

Salt Lake Tribune (Sean Means)
3/4 stars

Deseret News (Jeff Vice)
2.5/4 stars

McClatchy Newspapers (Rick Bentley)
A-

Gannett Newspaper Chain (James Ward)
Negative review

Dallas Morning News (Cary Darling)
3.5/5 stars

I pasted the reviews on the AML discussion board.
http://forums.mormonletters.org/yaf_postst783_MERRILL-Broken-Hill.aspx

Make sure you drop me a line when your documentary is read for some publicity.

Does anyone know why Christian changed the name of his film? I’m just curious because I liked the other title better.

I’m hoping to have a short documentary type film finished in the next month or so, also by way of update. I still have to get some permissions, so I won’t say much about it, but it was pretty spur-of-the-moment, so I’m hoping it turns out all right. Nothing to compare to what we’ve seen from others recently, I’m sure.