Good concept, poorly executed.

Captivating movie !

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

"Peco" Hoshino is an arrogant young man who's talent for table tennis is matched only by the intensity with which he competes and lives the sport. He shares his passion with friend "Smile" Tsukimoto who, despite being a slightly morbid sort, also demonstrates a real knack for the sport but, to the frustration of his coaches and peers, isn't that fussed about taking it beyond being just a game. As their coach tries to develop Smile's skills as a player, Peco suffers his first major "skunking" at the hands of a Chinese player Kong. Meanwhile the inter-high school championship looms, offering both Peco and Smile a real challenge.Shown recently as part of a night on BBC4 dedicated to the sport of table tennis (who says the BBC don't use the freedom given them by not being reliant on advertising?) I was drawn to this simply because it offered a different sport for a sports movie. The plot does follow a fairly traditional path although it does have plenty of nice touches and directions that make it more than just a genre movie with all the clichés put into ping pong. It isn't as good as I had hoped though because it isn't that consistent across the characters and its depth. This isn't a major failing but it did make it feel a bit bumpy to have weak characters at times while other times some of the dialogue and characterisation was smart and insightful.Visually the film benefits from the use of digital video and feels a lot "realer" than a different film type might have. Sori has some clever shots but even when just watching the games happen it still looks good. The cast are very talented on the table even if some of them are limited in the acting stakes. I liked Kubozuka and his character is the most interesting and he delivers it well. Arata is not as good but his performance is covered by his quiet silent and steady character. Lee, Nakamura and a few others produce solid characters on the table and are also given at least good dialogue scene each to work with – none of them are great actors but they all handle it well. Takenaka and Natsuki were both nice additions in the cast.Overall then this is not a great film but it is quite cool, enjoyable and funny. It doesn't really manage to do any one thing consistently and could have been funnier, sharper, more dramatic or more stylised (or all of them) but it does do all of these things here and there to good effect. Stays away from the easy genre clichés and is different enough to be worth a look though.

From the first seen with Peco jumping off the bridge, the engaging soundtrack reels you into to a story about two friends.While we may have see this type of friendship before, the subject matter is....well another matter. After all, to most of us in the US, ping pong is more of a recreational sport. The action is maybe a little too fast, but Ping Pong the movie slows it down and uses CG to create a surreal, manga-like atmosphere.The movie succeeds in combining CG, quick editing and cinematography colors to create a whole new world. But that is just the look of the movie. The two main characters Peco and Smile are opposites, but a friendship emerges when each wants what the other has.Peco wants Simile's god-given ability to play ping pong, and Smile wants the care-free personality of Peco. Along with the drama is some light hearted comedy. Like Peco singing what sounds like "bong, bong, bong" but it is actually "born, born, born". Simile replies 'in the USA'.I personally like movies that develop the characters. In this case, the focus is on the players. You will not see the players parents or where they live. Everything takes place at the gym or "ping pong dojo".I'm surprised, like other have stated, that this movie didn't make it to wide release in the US. Just how "Shall We Dance" peaked our interest in ballroom dancing, "Ping Pong" might have made thousands of us dust off the ping pong table sitting in the corner of the patio.

I watched this movie the first time last summer and I really liked it. Now after seeing it the second time I absolutely adore it. The ending almost got me into tears and that's really something.Ping Pong is about friendship and well, table tennis. I really don't think you can call this a normal sport film because that's kind of a lame term. And this isn't a lame film.The directing is good and acting too and the whole mood of this flick is stunning, especially in the end. I got the shivers.Too bad that this is, at least for most people, really hard to find. I'm glad my friend went to Japan and by mistake got this film and then gave this to me. A weird coincidence.

(Spoilers - semi-detailed descriptions of characters and central themes ahead) I just watched this little Japanese gem a few minutes ago, and it was pure joy. The movie was both funny and touching, and the two primary actors did such a terrific job that it hooked me right away. I'm usually not one for 'sports flicks', but this one stands out among a small group in that category that I actually like, where the sport is simply the backdrop to a larger ideal. In this case, there are a few strands that are developed as lessons in life, and very gracefully so - even the 'villains' of this movie are ultimately likeable.The main characters are in terrific contrast to one another - almost exact opposites - and yet their friendship is as true as any ever created on film. On the one hand there is Peko, who is brash, cocky and tremendously talented at ping pong. His only desire, seemingly, is to crush his opponents in the most belittling way possible, and to him, being a champion is everything. He's not a bad guy at all, but his competitive drive tends to take over and sometimes overshadow his charisma and inner goodness. Peko's life-long friend is Tsukimoto, a melancholy guy whose nickname is "Smile" because it's something he never seems to do. He is likely more naturally talented than Peko, but he feigns apathy about the game in almost all that he says, yet never quits playing it. He has no real desire to win, and he denies his abilities, and maintains this ideology to the point that he intentionally plays to lose against Peko (whose ego doesn't allow him to realize what his friend can do, even if everybody else can see it plainly). Tsukimoto derives greater pleasure from watching his friend soar than from trying to match his competitive fire or crush him. Their childhood bond is so strong that Tsukimoto has suppressed feelings of hero worship for Peko, who was there to defend him and teach him the basics of the game when they were very young. Tsukimoto is a gentle and kindly sportsman and person, but difficult to talk to and very complex. He wins when he wants to - rather, he hates the idea of ego-crushing that is so strong in any competitive event, and will intentionally lose a game if he sees that he's making a detrimental impact on the psyche of an opponent; he sees the way other people around him take Ping Pong so seriously, and he shakes his head about it. Tsukimoto ultimately takes the middle ground though, and perhaps 'rediscovers' the pleasures of the game, but we are still left wondering what's really going on in his mind.The film pulls no punches when it comes to declaring that natural talent goes farther than a strong work ethic, but talent cannot always do so alone. It strongly emphasizes the idea that talent without discipline is a tremendous waste, and will often lose the battle against a driven and tireless opponent who has talent in smaller degrees. This ideal is shown in the 'Rocky/Karate Kid' mould, with the typical "training to the beat of the soundtrack" thing that we've come to know from dozens of sports films. But! The payoff is another thing - the training doesn't describe anything about what is ultimately accomplished, and this is entirely atypical of the Hollywood Sport experience: when we see Peko finally commit to excellence during the semi-final match - where he learns to be the hero, to "fly". It's a remarkable thing, the way the director handled this. Very poetic, very crafty, and it completely serves to make one put away any misgivings about his ego and cheer him on.The lesser characters here represent a bunch of more-or-less typical types that we might encounter in any sport, but they are far from being stock. There are a few primary antagonists, both players and coaches, but in the end their characters are not shown to be the usual, two-dimensional "bad guys" that we see in American film - we come to understand these people and we see what makes them tick - their foibles, their inner ideas, and their struggles are shown pretty vividly. The movie is squarely set up, however, to showcase the two aforementioned characters, and to show how they rise up and tackle their own problems. The true antagonists here are the dubious inner ideas that people can embrace in life, particularly after some dose of failure. One of the great things about this whole set-up is that it puts on center stage two protagonists, and pits them against one other in the end in a final game of Ping Pong. Who should the audience want to win? As the team's coach rightly says, "Root for both of them. Cheer every point", and we do.