It's hard to say directly whether 'Ping Pong' is a good film, or not. On one hand, this story of teenage table tennis players nicely captures the mixture of immaturity, ambivalence and competitiveness in their personalities; and contains some amazing film of the young stars in action. The action in sports movies often seem dull compared with watching the real thing; but not here. On the other hand, there are exaggerated elements to both the characterisations and the on-table action, and the (differently) ambivalent aspects of both central characters weakens the force of the plot - it's hard to care too much about the outcome of particular matches, when it's unclear to us whether the heroes care themselves. It adds up to an odd mix of realism, zaniness and athleticism; but I liked it.
Review of Pinpon
