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  Ping Pong What Can You Bring To The Table?
Year: 2002
Director: Fumihiko Sori
Stars: Yôsuke Kubozuka, Arata, Sam Lee, Shido Nakamura, Koji Ookura, Naoto Takenaka, Mari Natsuki, Akira Nishihara
Genre: Drama, ActionBuy from Amazon
Rating:  6 (from 1 vote)
Review: Teenager Peco (Yôsuke Kubozuka) stands atop a bridge railing, preparing to jump off as a man with a bicycle approaches and attempts to talk him down, but Peca avers he can fly and leaps off in to the water. A while ago, he was a promising high school ping pong player, easily taking money at the local table tennis hall from unsuspecting players who thought they could beat him. With the latest championship coming up, his hopes were high, but what of his reticent best friend Smile (Arata), so called because he never looked cheerful? Could he be the only one able to best him?

There's not a complicated story to Ping Pong, adapted from the comic book by screenwriter Kankurô Kudô, as it could simply be the tale of any number of sporting rivalries, but its setting in a neglected sport for cinema, that bit in Forrest Gump apart, offered that element of novelty that made it stand out. For the most part, although you might anticipate a high octane barrage of trick shots and high speed flying balls and bats, director Fumihiko Sori sustained a low key atmosphere.

In fact, there's something so reflective about the tone that it almost turns spiritual, and if you can believe a ping pong match can be good for the soul then this is the film for you. Crisp-eating Peco is the show-off, friends with the moody and shy Smile since childhood so that they share a bond that means Peco feels he should be looking out for the man of few words he taught to play the game all those years ago. However, it's not only these two who are competing in the upcoming championship, as there are a variety of distinctive personalities there too.

The coach (Naoto Takenaka, also a director in his own right) is constantly let down by the talented but reluctant Smile, and after a whiile you do want to give the boy a shake to rouse him out of his gloom, but it's obvious that by the end we will be treated to a showdown between the leads so all this procrastination can test the patience. If any of the other players have a chance, it will be likely that the Chinese one, who has come over to Japan after failing in his homeland, or the leader of a rival school will be the chaps to give Peco a run for his money.

Although there is a lack of narrative drive to this, as it's almost a meander through the sport, there are memorable images thanks to the seamless use of special effects. Peco is frozen in the air as he makes his jump off the bridge, the rival school practise with military precision, and the Peco's match near the end takes on great significance, so much so that the action pauses so he and his opponent can discuss the fact that this is match point. For a sports movie, and a game that may be considered less than essential to many, Ping Pong is deeply thoughtful, almost meditative, about loyalties, winning and losing which you will either accept and adjust to its rhythm, or find frustrating when you want to see more action. It's undeniably different for its field, though.
Reviewer: Graeme Clark

 

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