Chang Can Dunk is a movie about basketball, but it is less interested in showing how entertaining the sport is and more interested in showing important life lessons that happen during the story.
The coming-of-age teen drama on Disney+ has a lot of depth and serves as a model for viewers. It makes us think about the choices we make and how they affect the people around us.
What Is Chang Can Dunk About?
The movie is about Chang, a 16-year-old basketball fan who looks up to the late NBA champion Kobe Bryant and uses his success to boost his own self-confidence. Chang is ready for the new school year. He has a new haircut and some new ideas about what to wear. He is also determined to get rid of his old image of himself as a geek. He tells his best friend, Bo (Ben Wang), that he wants to be popular at school and get a girl.
Chang meets Kristy (Zoe Renee), the new snare player when he goes back to the marching band. He likes her. Chang, who is 5’8″, wants to impress his crush and prove himself, so he bets that he can dunk on one of the best high school basketball players by homecoming. This decision will change his life for the rest of his days.
One good thing about Chang Can Dunk is how real the main character is. The movie shows how hard it is for teenagers to find acceptance and popularity in high school, which is probably something we all went through at some point. It also shows how hard it is for us to find things that interest us.
Whether it’s a hobby or a job, what we’re interested in and want to do may not be easy or something we’re good at. Still, Chang learns through patience, hard work, and passion that even though he is not naturally good at basketball, taking shortcuts to impress others hurts his relationships and only gives him short-term happiness.
What I liked most about the movie was how it showed Asian people. Jingyi Shao, who was making his directorial debut, did a good job. Bloom Li did a great job in his first major role. His acting skills made the audience feel like they were living each moment from Chang’s point of view. Even though the character made a few bad decisions, I still liked him and hoped that he would do the right thing and make up for his mistakes in some way.
Chang’s relationship with his single mother, who raised him, is another important part of the movie. Chang’s mother hopes that her son will find something he likes and stick with it. Li and Ma are both great at playing a mother and son who love each other but have very different ideas about life and don’t get along because they don’t have much in common. Even so, once Chang’s mother sees how much her son loves basketball, they have some sweet moments together that are a joy to watch.
There are, however, parts of the movie that don’t make sense, are easy to guess or are set up too conveniently to move the story along. There are some typical clichés in Chang Can Dunk, just like in most movies about teens coming of age that take place in high school, but the movie’s heart is in the right place.
Is Chang Can Dunk Based on a True Story?
Chang Can Dunk is not based on a true story, but writer-director Jingyi Shao used his own experiences as a teenager to write it. Shao told ScreenRant that he got the idea for the story from a picture that kept popping into his head.
“It was the scene where Chang is trying to fall in the snow. I’ve been the kid on the court when it’s raining and still trying to make shots. I kept wondering, “Why does this kid want to dunk so much?” Why does he care so much about this?’ Then I thought, “Can I get people to care about something so simple and maybe not even that important?” he said.
Shao took the idea of self-worth and thought about his life as a teenager, especially his relationship with his mother. Thinking about how important family is in Asian-American stories, the director said that telling these stories is a way to try to help people heal on their own terms. He said that he sometimes felt like his parents didn’t support him when he went after his dream.
However, he said that his dream brought him closer to his parents because it helped him “understand their journey and their struggles” He also said, “I would say that this movie is a lot about family, especially if you aren’t close to them or have differences, and how you can heal that and how you can heal that.”
Chang’s life is also affected by his relationship with DeAndre, who is his coach. In the movie, DeAndre makes a series of videos that show Chang’s change from a boy who couldn’t dunk to a boy who worked hard to get what he wanted. Shao got the idea for this from an actual video series called “10,000 Hours.” It shows Devin Williams teaching basketball to Matty and Kyle Wong. Shao thought it was interesting and one of the many ways people from different cultures can get together.
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