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| PING PONG. Starring - Yosuke Kubozuka - Arata - Sam Lee - Shido Nakamura. Director - Fumihiko Sori. 2002. A movie about Ping-Pong? Now where else in the world could you find a motion picture devoted to the glories of a small spherical object? Well apart from the Dutch porn industry that is, and those tapes are quite expensive ;) Ping Pong is not just a movie about a small bouncy lump of plastic (forgive my ignorance oh famous ping-pongers of the world). It is a story of friendship and discovery following the plight of two friends, Peco and Smile. As young boys, Peco takes Smile under his wing and introduces him to the joys of ball whacking. Smile isn’t that interested in playing with his balls but he still obliges to satisfy his new friend. It turns out that whilst not having the same passion or drive for the sport as Peco, Smile has something else and that is natural ability. This however is his downfall as he only too often holds himself back to spare his opponent the hellish curse of Ping-Pong defeat. The worse form of which is ‘Skunking’ a term used to describe a 21-0 loss. Where I am from if you got beat 21-0 at something you would roast your balls on an open log fire. It’s a good job these guys aren’t from around here then, as defeat just pushes them on to their destiny. The inter high school Ping-Pong championships. I could never have envisaged me liking a movie about Ping-Pong so much, after all the only balls that I often play with (okay more than often, religiously) are sitting in my hand right now, lol. Anyway I digress. Ping Pong is a quality movie that for the first 20 minutes feels a little weird as you try and take on board the subject matter. As the film unfolds though you realise that there is more going on here than just a game of Ping-Pong. Director Fumihiko Sori focuses firmly on the lead pair Yosuke Kubozuka (Peco) and Arata (Smile) but he also leaves himself time to develop back-stories for the rest of the cast. Which is interesting as you feel for each of them and not just for the leads, as is the norm for most movies. Even the supposed bad guy of the film Dragon has more going on in his head than is first suggested. The scripting is first rate which paves the way for some brilliant acting throughout, every scene feels just right, perfectly subtle when needs be and upliftingly funny when the time is right. Not since Shaolin Soccer have I seen a movie this funny. The one thing that did surprise me was the way in which the actual matches were filmed, a kind of surrealistic universe where all is possible. CGI is used to great effect slowing down the play Matrix-esque and opening into a whole New World, this may sound like a bad joke but it works really well and offers some truly unique moments. I could go on and on about the CGI and how impressive it is, it really is that good. This is one of those movies that could easily pass you by because of the content, but don’t let it. The performances are great, the scripting is intelligent, the camerawork brilliant, the comedy is spot on and the CGI is technically groundbreaking. This is the best Ping-Pong movie I have ever seen, ok fair enough I have only seen one but it is bloody good stuff. Great fun and a pleasure to watch. It’s kind of like Rocky but with little 140 km/h flying lumps of plastic. 10**********stars. |
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