Heroes... someone who comes to help when you're in trouble. Do you believe in heroes?



OVERVIEW

The story of Ping Pong (an adaptation of the original comic by Taiyo Matsumoto, directed by Fumihiko Sori) evolves around 2 high school Ping Pong (Table Tennis) players and childhood friends, "Peco" Hoshino (Yôsuke Kubozuka) and "Smile" Tsukimoto (Arata), who have totally different characters. Peco is a lively and over-confident player who dreams of becoming the world champion, while his best friend, Smile, is somehow an anti-social person (he's got the nickname "Smile" because he does rarely smile) who plays Ping Pong just to kill time.

They seem to lead their usual lifestyles and playing styles normally until the turning point, the Inter-High Tournament, sets in. Competing against skilled players like "Akuma" Sakuma (Koji Ookura) Peco's childhood friend/rival, "China" Kong (Sam Lee) an international student from Shanghai and "Dragon" Kazama (Shido Nakamura) the Inter-High champion of Japan, Peco and Smile have to face their own weaknesses big time.

In the moments of crisis, Smile turns to Peco who he admired as a "Hero", but with Peco's breakdown after losing a match in the tournament, will there be any hero who comes to save them? Is there any hero at all? Find out the answer in Ping Pong.



MY IMPRESSION

The first time I watched Ping Pong was around 4 years ago, at first I though it was some kind of those funny teen movies, it also reminded me of my favourite manga created by Kyoroku Itou (another manga from the same creator of the one in the link), so I decided to buy the DVD. In the very first minute of the opening scenes, it did hit me with a feeling of comedy, but as I heard the opening music (Free Your Soul by SUPERCAR), I changed my mind because the combination of the pictures and the music had already given me the feeling that Ping Pong was going to be something.

Then I wasn't wrong at all, because underneath the shell of a comedy/sport movie, Ping Pong portrays beauty of the loves and respects between people such as friends, relatives, coach & player and even rivals. The story took place during an Inter-High Ping Pong tournament in Japan with lead characters, Peco and Smile, along side with other 3 main characters (Akuma, China and Dragon), each of them have different kind of characteristic, motivation, reason and the way they see life. I'd give the credit to the directing (by Fumihiko Sori), the screenplay by Kankurô Kudô, because within 1 hour and 50 minutes length of this movie, you get to know most (but not all) of these charcters very well, thanks to all the main actors plus the support actor ("Butterfly Joe" played by Naoto Takenaka) and actress ("Tamura Obaba" played by Mari Natsuki) as well.

The arts of Ping Pong are impressive. Great use of colors, eye-catching special effects, interesting manga-style compositions and camera moves, and also the uses of "Symbols" such as the character "Peko" (mascot from the brand Fujiya) or the "star" and "moon" patterns Peco and Smile use on their shirts and rackets. And the musics and sound effects in Ping Pong are also interesting, if you haven't watch this movie yet and would like to get some feelings of it, you can try it at the movie's web site (Flash Player required).

This is the 4th time I've watched Ping Pong and still being impressed by it. I really love the idea that everybody have their weaknesses they wanted to ignore or stay away from, but at the same time everybody have the strong parts within they needed to search for. Everybody needs a hero at one point... and may be everybody has one deep down inside, Do you believe in heroes?

"Enter your hero!"

Pomme-Genozide
www.GenozytE.com

 

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