Ping Pong (2002)

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)

it was great

the movie is about these two boys who have been friends since they were young. they are both on the ping pong club team. the main character peco is a cocky kid who thinks that he is great, though he is, his best friend "smile" (because he doesnt) is equily as good but doesnt let himself try. the two join a tournament and peco loses to an easy foe while smile beats the only person to ever beat peco... make sense? anyway, the two separate. peco loses his will to play and smile trains harder than ever. they meet again at another tournament where at the end they are put against eachother by elimination. i think that the characters in this movie are pretty interesting. the acting for the most part is fairly good but also a little over the top in a few scenes because of how animated the peco character is. a few things are also pretty far fetched. i would say that it is overall a good movie but you cant take it too seriously or you will be let down.

if you like this movie check out aoi haru (blue spring) it is based off of a manga by the same author that wrote ping pong... though much more violent, this movie is a fantastic movie. i would say to also check out kyoki no sakura staring kabozuke yosuke, also much more violent in nature, but a fantastic movie aswell.