There is an awkward humor to "White on Rice" that compels you to keep watching.

There are moments Jimmy (Hiroshi Watanabe, "Letters From Iwo Jima") is laugh-out-loud funny, and there are times you feel for the guy, not sure whether to laugh or be embarrassed for him.

Maybe it's because when David Boyle co-wrote the character, he pictured a little of himself in it.

"At the time I wrote it, I was living in my sister's basement and she's a wedding florist (like Jimmy's sister)," Boyle said. "I started thinking of what my future could be like if I didn't do something with my life."

Like the movie, part of Boyle's charm is that statement is a little over the top, yet stated matter-of-factly.

Truth is, Boyle is 27, and already has one movie, "Big Dreams Little Tokyo" to his credit. He's living the vagabond life these days only because he's traveling the country to promote "White on Rice" with guerilla-style marketing: Showing the film at festivals and college campuses, then releasing it in local theaters and talking to local media. Last week, "White on Rice" was one of the more popular shows at the Hawaii International Film Festival. It opens tonight at Regal Dole Cannery Stadium 18 theaters.

Jimmy, on the other hand, is 40, divorced, living in the basement of his sister's home and sharing a bunk bed with his 10-year-old nephew, Bob (Justin Kwong), a little genius who constantly reminds Jimmy, "Mom said to wash your hands and get ready for dinner."

Jimmy's reply is always a happy, "Thanks, Bob."

Boyle said he and Joel Clark co-wrote the script within six months after meeting Watanabe. They plucked Kwong from the auditions after asking him what he liked to do in his free time, and he answered "design houses."

"I knew he was perfect for Bob right there," Boyle said, laughing. "We knew that Hiroshi was perfect for the Jimmy role, too. He's such a good actor. He decided to play all his lines straight as if it were a serious drama, and I think that's what makes him so appealing. You want to laugh with Jimmy, not at him. I've heard the humor described as 'Napoleon Dynamite-ish,' and I guess it is in that they're both filled with awkward humor. But it's different from Napoleon."

Watanabe's performance is one with a little truth to it. It's a role you watch and think, "I know a guy like that."

Jimmy is the friend or relative who hangs around too long, saying the wrong things at the wrong time, basically filter-less with his thoughts. He's the guy who never learned to grow up and take responsibility. He loves dinosaurs, still needs to be cooked and cared for, and constantly chases women in his office in search of his next wife.

His redeeming quality is that he doesn't know any better. He's a kind soul who can be infuriating, but is tough not to like. At one point, he explains to his co-workers that he had to come to America because he ran out of his ex-wife's food.

"You ran out of food in Japan?" they ask him.

"Yes," he says, straightfaced. "She only made me three months' worth of meals, so I had to come and live with my sister."

It makes sense to him.

There is no great moral to the story for "White on Rice,"but there are some great performances.

Besides Watanabe and Kwong, Japanese Academy Award winner Nae plays Jimmy's patient sister, Aiko. Lynn Chen plays Ramona, the house guest he falls hopelessly in love with, and Mio Takada is Tak, the fed-up brother-in-law and Aiko's husband. James Kyson Lee of "Heroes" plays Tim, Ramona's hunky love interest standing between Jimmy and his destiny.

This is a movie that will stick with you, as Boyle puts it, "like white on rice."