To me, this movie is perfection.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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.

"Peco" Hoshino is an arrogant young man who's talent for table tennis is matched only by the intensity with which he competes and lives the sport. He shares his passion with friend "Smile" Tsukimoto who, despite being a slightly morbid sort, also demonstrates a real knack for the sport but, to the frustration of his coaches and peers, isn't that fussed about taking it beyond being just a game. As their coach tries to develop Smile's skills as a player, Peco suffers his first major "skunking" at the hands of a Chinese player Kong. Meanwhile the inter-high school championship looms, offering both Peco and Smile a real challenge.Shown recently as part of a night on BBC4 dedicated to the sport of table tennis (who says the BBC don't use the freedom given them by not being reliant on advertising?) I was drawn to this simply because it offered a different sport for a sports movie. The plot does follow a fairly traditional path although it does have plenty of nice touches and directions that make it more than just a genre movie with all the clichés put into ping pong. It isn't as good as I had hoped though because it isn't that consistent across the characters and its depth. This isn't a major failing but it did make it feel a bit bumpy to have weak characters at times while other times some of the dialogue and characterisation was smart and insightful.Visually the film benefits from the use of digital video and feels a lot "realer" than a different film type might have. Sori has some clever shots but even when just watching the games happen it still looks good. The cast are very talented on the table even if some of them are limited in the acting stakes. I liked Kubozuka and his character is the most interesting and he delivers it well. Arata is not as good but his performance is covered by his quiet silent and steady character. Lee, Nakamura and a few others produce solid characters on the table and are also given at least good dialogue scene each to work with – none of them are great actors but they all handle it well. Takenaka and Natsuki were both nice additions in the cast.Overall then this is not a great film but it is quite cool, enjoyable and funny. It doesn't really manage to do any one thing consistently and could have been funnier, sharper, more dramatic or more stylised (or all of them) but it does do all of these things here and there to good effect. Stays away from the easy genre clichés and is different enough to be worth a look though.

I've never seen a film about table tennis before, and this sheds a whole new light on the game by using it as a stage on which to illustrate ideas about the nature of friendship, honour and respect, both for oneself and others. This alone is ambitious, and well realised, as the relationships between the characters develop over the course of the film, but the game itself, and sport in general, are also shown in a very positive light. Dramatic cinematography of play, illustration of training techniques and acknowledgement of the roles of coaches, mentors and team-mates, wrapped with the importance of enjoyment of 'the game' being a crucial motive for those who compete in sport at the very highest levels, gave me a new respect for a game / sport about which I know virtually nothing, and for its champions. I think I probably missed something for seeing it subtitled - I was aware of ambivalence in some of the text, which understanding the spoken word, especially intonation, would have solved - but this is ever a debate when watching non-English language films. It isn't a massive problem, I was still able to empathise with credibly cast actors in consequently credible characters. This is a lovely film.

I watched this movie in Japan, in the theater, twice. At $25 a shot. But it was worth every dollar. And this was without understanding much of the dialogue, because I don't speak Japanese. When the DVD was released with English subtitles, I purchased it immediately. And again, it was worth every dollar.This movie is fantastic. On the surface, it's a movie about sports and competition. Beneath this, it's a movie about heroes and friendship. There's no clear-cut "bad guy". Every character has depth, motive and pain.In short, the filming is great, the story is fabulous, and the actors are well-cast. Even watching it in Japanese, the acting was good enough to convey the general story without me understanding what was being said.I love this movie. In fact, whenever I meet someone who hasn't seen it, I make them watch it.