Overview: Punkish ping pong prodigy Peco (Yosuke Kubozuka; Go, Silence) is on a losing streak, not helped by his friend since childhood, Smile (ARATA; After Life, United Red Army), intentionally letting him win in their practice sessions.

As tournament day draws near, it is up to Peco to regain his mojo to take on such fearsome opponents as China (Sam Lee; Made in Hong Kong), who has fallen off the Chinese national team and wound up, bitter, in Japan, and Dragon (Nakamura Shido; Deathnote), their arch-nemesis from the rival Kaio Academy team, who approaches the table with an almost militaristic fanaticism. Adapted from Taiyo Matsumoto’s cult manga series, the debut feature of Fumihiko Sori (Vexille, Fullmetal Alchemist) is a zero-to-hero tale of friendship, dedication and sportsmanship, featuring exhilarating table-tennis battles that will make you never look at the sport in quite the same way again.

Blu-ray Verdict: The comic book adaptation may tend to scare people off, but this one at least made a good movie. The story is about a Japanese Ping-Pong league and the different generations of people involved in it, and how they relate to each other and how said relationships change over time.

One teenage boy is a devoted serious player, but his friend only views it as a way to kill time. There is also a highly skilled player from China who seeks his fortune in Japan after he had failed at home. There are older competitors, and a onetime former master who now serves as an ad-hoc coach.

You also see their superstitions (one player has a habit of hiding in toilet stalls) and how they have no real life outside of Ping-Pong. One player even drops out only to come back because he has nothing else.

There are important matches, of course, but the real interest is what happens outside of them. So much so that it becomes hard to say directly whether Ping Pong is a good film, or a great film. 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 characterizations 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. Thus it adds up to an odd mix of realism, zaniness and athleticism; but I myself really liked it and I think you will also.

Bonus Features:
HIGH-DEFINITION BLU-RAY PRESENTATION IN 1.85:1 ASPECT RATIO
JAPANESE 5.1 DTS-HD MA AUDIO WITH NEW ENGLISH SUBTITLES
JAPANESE 2.0 DTS-HD MA AUDIO WITH NEW ENGLISH SUBTITLES
STILLS GALLERY
TRAILER
ORIGINAL AND NEWLY COMMISSIONED ARTWORK BY LUKE INSECT
LIMITED EDITION OBI STRIP

Official Trailer

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