Ping Pong (Japan, 2002)
Directed by: Fumihiko Sori 

Starring: Yôsuke Kubozuka, Arata, Nakamura Shido


A  techno fever dream about table tennis champions growing up and becoming heroes, PING PONG is the greatest eXtreme sports movie ever made — and the sport is table tennis?!? Sure enough. By the time the last plastic ball has been smacked into dust you¹ll believe that a ping pong player can fly. 

Longtime pals — loudmouth Peco and dour Smile have come to a crossroads. Smile is the better player, but he consistently loses to Peco out of a misguided sense of friendship. Nice of him, but it¹s led Peco to believe he¹s the unbeatable king of the world. When the joyless table tennis technician, Dragon, crushes Peco; and China, a Mainland player who couldn¹t make it in the PRC, mops up the court with Smile, it¹s time to either put up or shut up. For Smile it¹s the putting up that¹s hard, for Peco it¹s shutting up that¹s next to impossible. 



Sports movies are a grab bag of cliches with every breath of fresh air (Bull Durham) inspiring a dozen stale typhoons (Mr. Baseball). But PING PONG is a hurricane of emotionally complex performances, wild visuals, and narrative brio. Based on a manga by Matsumoto Taiyo, PING PONG perfectly translates every one of his panels  — crammed with twitchy lines and nervous energy — into live action film. First time director, Fumihiko Sori, shot the entire movie digitally and uses his experience as a special effects supervisor on Titanic to stuff this flick with visual tricks. Fading players sprout wilting butterfly wings, micron-level close-ups dissect the impact of the ball on the surface of the paddles, surreal flocks of seagulls streak through anonymous community gymnasiums and the hyper-complex editing brings past and present hurtling into one another from shot to shot.



The characters are a rogue¹s gallery torn from the pages of the manga, but none of them are cartoonish. Bowl-haired star, Peco, is played by Japan¹s hot young thing, Yôsuke Kubozuka. The uni-named Arata plays the Rubik¹s Cube-twisting, monosyllabic softie, Smile, with his viciously efficient ping pong skills. Hong Kong¹s Sam Lee, a skater and self-trained actor who¹s become a badge of authenticity for scores of films since 1997, plays China. He disconnects his normally manic acting style in order to play a remote, self-loathing, self-doubting player who left China thinking he¹d become a big fish in a small pond when he reached Japan. Chrome dome, Nakamura Shido, plays the big, bad, Death Star of ping pong, Dragon. A Kabuki star, every one of Shido¹s movements is beautiful violence. 

Racing through your veins at the speed of adrenaline, PING PONG beats America¹s weepy old baseball movies to their creaky old knees, while leaving your heart thudding and your synapses shooting sparks.