Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A fellow screenwriter recommended this as one of his favorite films, and I rented it through Netflix. It is an absolute charmer! The buildup in the first half is a little slow, but entertaining, and by the end of the film, I had fallen in love with all of these characters.There are moments of pure and fresh delight! This story has a heart and soul - it has many! The only criticism I have is that there are not enough female characters in it. Peco's granny is terrific, but Demon's girlfriend is an annoying stereotype.Peco and Smile - an unforgettable pair. Great friendship movie, and excellent footage of table tennis at its best.I especially love the character of Smile. Great writing!

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 was incredibly lucky to get to view this on real film, and loved it. It turned the rather interesting sport of ping pong into a watchable, hyper, twisting story of friendship. I occasionally cried. The cinematography and special effects are splendid -- they bring it in touch with the manga it was based on, without making it inaccessibly over-produced. Also, the casting is fantastic; you can tell that the actors were type-cast, but the movie only seems to benefit from it. As others have mentioned, the soundtrack was excellent -- if Simon & Garfunkel and Japancakes collaborated on Asian pop, I think it would sound a lot like this. My only reservation is on the subbing; though it's better than dubbed would ever be, something is occasionally lost in translation when innocent phrases in Japanese end up translating into English as something connotatively very different.

Wow this movie sucked big time. I heard this movie expresses the meaning of friendship very well. And with all the internet hype on this movie I figured what could go wrong? However the movie was just plain bad. It was boring and the character development was never there. Space Travelers was also a horrible movie, if you didn't like that movie there is no way you will like this.