I’d give anything to be able to dunk on a regulation hoop. Well, maybe not anything, but man-oh-man, that’s an athletic feat I wish were in my repertoire. I’m not alone, of course. And being able to dunk doesn’t make you a great basketball player, necessarily, either. There is only the slightest of correlation between the two. Yeah, I suppose people who can dunk are generally quite better at the game than people who cannot, but the latter group includes literally millions of people who probably shouldn’t be playing basketball anyway for general mobility reasons.
Of course, Chang Can Dunk isn’t really about Chang dunking. I mean, sure that’s the whole plot, but really it’s about Chang (Bloom Li) becoming a better person. Learning to dunk is simply a vehicle for his own accelerated maturity. Is that maturity going to come from mastering a relatively useless skill or from understanding that you need not master the skill to become the person you wish to be? That question represents a different film. In this one, Chang is a hothead with an inferiority complex who thinks dunking will redefine his life. In a way, he’s absolutely right. The question then becomes, “Is this the redefinition of your life that you want?”
Chang has a bully. His bully is school basketball hero Matt (Chase Liefeld). Imagine an evil version of Troy from High School Musical and you’re there already. In one ugly string, Matt embarrasses Chang in public about five times in a row in a span of twelve hours. The humiliations occur on the court where Matt dunks to show up Chang, off the court where Matt attempts to steal Chang’s would-be GF, Kristy (Zoe Renee), and at a party where Matt locks Chang in a basement and then plays witness while Chang blows up and falls into a swimming pool. The next day, Chang lays down the gauntlet: in 11 weeks, the 5’8” high school outcaste will either dunk a basketball or cede his most prized possession.
Act II is the best part of this film. While it amounts to little more than an extended training montage, we get a good feel for the person Chang wants to be. He gets up early every single day to attack his vertical and (metaphorical) personality shortcomings. Boy, good thing he never has to go to school or do homework ever, huh? That’s irrelevant! He’s on the Dunk U. wait-list! And in the effort to become the guy who can dunk, Chang becomes the guy he needs to be; the guy who values hard work, friendship, and wins the girl.
This is precisely the kind of movie that should be in vogue given that -right now- our own personal shortcomings
are all on display as they never have been before. You don’t need to be an Avenger; you just need to be a better you: have a positive goal, get more exercise, eat right, make something, read more, argue less, and for God sake, stop voting Republican and pretending you’re doing the right thing.
Chang Can Dunk lost me in Act I, found me in Act II, and lost me again in Act III. Geez, man, how much self-improvement did Chang need? Watching Chang work his way up to dunking, I really wanted to love this film. But watching Chang self-tank, I realized that was impossible. Being a quality human being will never have anything to do with the ability to dunk a basketball. Chang Can Dunk knows this well, yet still made the film it made. Oh well. This was no slam dunk.
There once was a hoopster named Chang
Unimpressed with the court game he brang
Working into a funk
He learned how to dunk
Only to find fortune cares not who rang
Rated PG, 109 Minutes
Director: Jingyi Shao
Writer: Jingyi Shao
Genre: Disney takes on the hard issues
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Dreamers, fighters
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: “Validation can only come from within”
