The Story – Friendship and Heroism
“Ping Pong” is a New York Asian Film Festival winner and tells the story of two childhood friends, Peco and Smile, who have been playing ping pong together ever since Peco saved Smile from a gang of boys who were beating on Smile. This rescue of Smile by Peco and their ensuing friendship has led Smile to always regard Peco as a hero. While both Peco and Smile have been playing ping-pong at the same little hideaway ping-pong ‘club’, they have vastly different attitudes towards the game. Peco knows that he is amazing and he often plays for bets whereas Smile refuses to play for money. This shows us the one of the four major eccentricities of Smile that all play a key role in the film. These four eccentricities are 1) Smile does not smile. 2) Smile never plays for money. 3) Smile often lets his opponents win because he feels bad for them mainly due to the fact that 4) Smile regards ping pong as simply something to do to kill time.
The key settings of this movie are two totally different years at the Inter-High School Table Tennis Championships. In the first year, Peco’s overconfidence causes him to loose against another old friend named Demon. Peco looses all his confidence after this upset and quits ping-pong until Demon points out to him that he is letting Smile down because Peco is still a hero to Smile. Peco returns to the old ping-pong club and asks the lady proprietor to train him. “Start with telling me again how to hold the paddle” he tells her. After months of vigorous training (at which point Smile is training just as hard with his High School coach) we arrive at the next years Inter-High School Table Tennis Championships. From here on out, I will not spoil the ending, preferring to leave it to the reader to find out what happens.
Presentation – Astounding.
And that’s not from the cover. This movie, in typical Japanese style, is visually stunning and full of life lessons. It is not so much a film about ping-pong as it is a film about not letting down those people who count on you and look up to you. It is about not getting so comfortable in your abilities that you forget to strive to improve yourself. All these messages are presented in a forward, but not blatant way so that the viewer is left with a profound feeling almost of guilt because we’ve almost all come to a point in our lives where we may have let someone else down or we’ve lost something due to our pride. The music in this film is also a major plus. From pumping techno to quiet mood music, all of it is timed to perfection and never overdone.
Extras – Lots.
While the movie is only offered in Japanese with or without English subtitles, there is an entire disk of extra features including a 54 minute “Making of Ping Pong” feature, a 16 minute parody of the movie called “Ting Pong”, a 16 minute short film called “How to Play Ping Pong”, original trailers and TV spots. All of these are well worth looking into.
Overall – A Stunning Performance
Between the life lessons and stunning cinematography and special effects, this movie had this reviewer on the edge of his seat the whole time. With a combination of humor, the typical depression of Japanese society, winning, losing, and pushing through, this film has a lot of aspects that will relate to a vast majority of its viewers.
Overall: 10.0