Ping Pong (2002)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Fumihiko Sori

Writers:

Taiyo Matsumoto (comic)
Kankurô Kudô (screenplay)

Release Date:

30 July 2004 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Sport

Plot:

The film traces the growth and friendship of 2 very different high school ping pong players. "Peco" Hoshino is a brash...

Plot Keywords:

Ping Pong | Coach | High School | Training | Mask

Awards:

5 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Yôsuke Kubozuka	...	Yutaka Hoshino / Peco
Arata	...	Makoto Tsukimoto / Smile
Sam Lee	...	Kong Wenge / China
Shido Nakamura	...	Ryûichi Kazama / Dragon
Koji Ookura	...	Manabu Sakuma / Demon
Naoto Takenaka	...	Butterfly Joe
Mari Natsuki	...	Obaba
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
YosiYosi Arakawa
Takahiro Hirano
Mako Ishino
Koen Kondo
Erika Mabuchi
Suzuki Matsuo	...	Policeman
Asumi Miwa
Ayumu Moriyama
Akira Nishihara
Satoshi Ôe
Mikio Satô
Kenichi Suemitsu
Kiyotaka Suzuki
Chie Tanaka
Yôhei Toyoda
Kanji Tsuda
Hua Rong Weng
Shinji Yamashita

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | Cantonese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

South Korea:All | UK:12A

Filming Locations:

Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan

Company:

Asmik Ace Entertainment

Movie Connections:

References "Gigantor" (1964)

More films like this, please!

I was incredibly lucky to get to view this on real film, and loved it. It turned the rather interesting sport of ping pong into a watchable, hyper, twisting story of friendship. I occasionally cried. The cinematography and special effects are splendid -- they bring it in touch with the manga it was based on, without making it inaccessibly over-produced. Also, the casting is fantastic; you can tell that the actors were type-cast, but the movie only seems to benefit from it. As others have mentioned, the soundtrack was excellent -- if Simon & Garfunkel and Japancakes collaborated on Asian pop, I think it would sound a lot like this. My only reservation is on the subbing; though it's better than dubbed would ever be, something is occasionally lost in translation when innocent phrases in Japanese end up translating into English as something connotatively very different.