Dir. Fumihiko Sori, 2002, Japan, 90 mins
Cast:
Yosuke Kubozuka, Arata, Sam Lee, Shidou Nakamura, Koji Ohkura
Based on a Japanese comic by Taiyou Matsumoto, Ping Pong is a coming of age teen movie crossed with a triumph over adversity sports story. If this description makes Ping Pong sound like a cliché-ridden film, then it's to the filmmaker's credit that the film feels fresh and exhilarating. Never mind the fact that the table tennis games are frequently jazzed up with Matrix style camera tricks, CGI and aerobatics; the most interesting and refreshing aspect of the film is the friendship and rivalry between two leads, whose friendship is the back bone of the film.
Friends since childhood, the cocksure and arrogant Peco (Yosuke Kubozuka), and his quieter, more sullen friend Smile (Arata) are both top notch table tennis players at their school. Whereas Smile tries to brush off any suggestion that table tennis is his calling and that he has a natural talent for the game, the more confident and arrogant Peco has no such hang ups, and is convinced that he is the best table tennis player around. However, after being soundly defeated by China (Sam Lee) in a school tournament, a humbled Peco drops out of school and abandons table tennis, while Smile continues his table tennis training and focuses on an upcoming major tournament. Peco eventually regains his confidence and undergoes rigorous training so that he is able to compete in the same tournament. Not only do Peco and Smile face the formidable opposition of a rival team headed by the fiercely disciplined and committed Dragon (Shidou Nakamura), but there is a possibility that the friends will have to face one another in a showdown, which will determine who is the best ping pong player.
Is Ping Pong a comment on the perceived competitiveness of Japanese society or an honourable samurai-like confrontation between two sports warriors? Maybe, but it also reminiscent of Martin Scorsese's 1987 film The Color of Money, a sequel to The Hustler that featured Tom Cruise as a cocky young pool player who has more talent than sense, and who shoots off his mouth as much as he shoots pool, a forerunner of Peco. If Peco is the equivalent of Cruise, then Smile could be seen as Paul Newman. Although not a wise tutor, Smile is certainly the more levelheaded than Peco. However, Smile doesn't have the competitive edge in him. He's a brooding player who empathises with his opponents instead of exploiting their weaknesses, at the cost to his own game. Smile may have the natural talent to play table tennis, but he doesn't have the enthusiasm. To digress into Chinese philosophy, Peco and Smile are almost the same person, with Peco being the physical, aggressive, positive yang, as opposed to Smile's intellectual, passive and negative yin. The film also matches The Color of Money in its use of competition matches, where we meet other figures who will become opponents and antagonists throughout the course of the story.
Although comparisons can be made with Scorsese's pool hall drama, there's much here that makes Ping Pong distinctive. Although the film's table tennis action has been amped up with CGI and fast, tight editing, it's not included at the expense of character. The two lead actors, along with a distinctive gallery of supporting players, all making a vivid impression. If there's a fault with the film, it's that the image sometimes looks murky, no doubt due to the digital camera used to shoot it. This results in a few shots (most noticeably, the exteriors) where the parts of the image white out, while a few of the darker interiors are indistinct, with some details and subtleties of the image being lost. Nevertheless, Ping Pong is still an engaging film that puts a fresh spin on high school film and sports movie archetypes.
Martyn Bamber
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