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The Year of the Yao (2005)
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Movie Review by Corey 
April 27th, 2005
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Have you ever been thrust into a new and scary environment with someone – even a stranger – and forced to spend almost every waking minute with them? Have you invariably ended up really close with that person because of that experience? No matter how different you thought they were from you? Chinese basketball star Yao Ming and his American translator Colin Pine did and the episode is captured in Adam Del Deo and James D. Stern's fine documentary THE YEAR OF THE YAO.
Already a rock-star level legend – for his considerable basketball talent - back home, seven foot six Yao Ming, 22, was the first pick of the entire 2002-03 NBA Draft. As if it's not enough to carry the hopes, adoration and dreams of one billion of your fellow country men (not to mention the Houston faithful), Yao also faced the glare of the unrelenting American media spotlight, the scrutiny of an unbelieving professional basketball establishment and the pressure of justifying a multimillion dollar contract before scoring a bucket – without speaking a lick of English. His sole conduit is his translator, Colin Pine, a 29 year-old almost law school student, who himself is a rookie to his trade.
This unique fusion of East and West over hoops is a two-way street of cultural and personal exchange. Colin deciphers the complexities of an NBA offense for Yao. He introduces him to American cultural tent poles of video games, Thanksgiving, Best Buy and road rage. Yao introduces Colin to traditional Chinese Food – when he can find the proper ingredients.
Due to the reverence that the filmmakers obviously have for their subject, the film is also injected with a rather sizable amount of fluff. Is it really, absolutely friggin' necessary to feature Yao-based sound bites from such noted basketball historians Adam Sandler, Spike Lee and P-Diddy? Likewise, muckrakers will find no smoking guns – pregnant groupies, jilted bookies, "Cribs" style walk-throughs – which, while noticeably absent, is quite refreshing. For Yao truly comes across as humble man, referring to himself as a "blade of grass trying to thank the sun" as a description of his gratitude to his family. The film's greatest strength, meanwhile, is that it truly makes you feel like the third amigo stuck inside the bubble with Yao and Colin, an element that pays off well in the end – not unlike it does in, dare I say it, LOST IN TRANSLATION.
It is an easy and often used critical conceit to say that a sports film like THE YEAR OF THE YAO is a (enter name of sport) movie that's "not about (enter name of sport)." Please. There may indeed be a bit too much basketball action – and Charles Barkley – herein for the average non-basketball fan. That said, while war still rages on today between ideologically opposed cultures, it is invigorating to see that lifelong friendship can flourish between total strangers from opposite ends of the literal and figurative planet.
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