88 Films: Ping Pong (2002) - Reviewed

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Images courtesy of 88 Films

Before making his directorial debut with the live-action adaptation of manga artist Taiyo Matsumoto’s series Ping Pong in 2002, Fullmetal Alchemist and animation director of Vexille Fumihiko Sori started out as a visual effects artist who contributed to James Cameron’s Titanic as well as serving as the supervisor on Takashi Miike’s Andromedia.  A jack-of-all-tradesman who was nominated for Best Director at the Japanese Academy Awards for his 2002 debut, the filmmaker is currently working on another live action manga-to-film adaptation with Darwin’s Game set to release in 2027. 
 
Co-authored by future Miike Zebraman screenwriter Kankurō Kudō and featuring Nakamura Shidō II from Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima and Arata Iura from Hirokazu’s After Life, it’s a refreshing coming-of-age look at table tennis that channels some of the exhilarating energies of Challengers without going into full heart attack mode ala Marty Supreme.  Released in the United States for the first time via 88 Films in a new 4K digital restoration with numbered limited OBI spines and a collectible booklet, it makes for a far less searing companion piece to, say, All About Lily Chou-Chou.
 
Peco (Yōsuke Kubozuka from Scorsese’s Silence) and Smile (Arata Iura) are lifelong childhood friends with a kindred passion for table tennis.  Often playing together at a table tennis club, their personalities couldn’t be more different with Peco being loud and boisterous while Smile is quiet and introverted with a propensity of letting his opponents beat him out of sympathy and consideration for others.  However, Peco is on a losing streak as the annual table tennis tournament is about to commence with little help from Smile as a new player from Shanghai nicknamed China (Sam Lee) enters the game. 
 
Smile once again lets his opponent win while Dragon (Nakamura Shidō II) quickly ascends the ranks as Peco and Smile’s most formidable adversary.  Can either of these young childhood friends, under the strict guidance of coach Butterfly Joe (Shall We Dance? actor Naoto Takenaka) and careful cool observation of tennis club manager Obaba (Sakuran actress Mari Natsuki) steer these two back on the path of triumphing in the sport they know and love?

 
An out of the gate crowd pleaser with the aforementioned Nakamura Shidō II winning the Newcomer of the Year award as Dragon, while often goofy and a bit bonkers at times including an opening seeming suicide attempt that later proves to be a cleansing effort in more intensive table tennis training, Ping Pong is one of the premier Japanese youth movies of the 2000s.  A kaleidoscopic sometimes paneled exercise in page-to-screen manga adaptation with a playful score by Mao and dynamic, stately cinematography by Akira Sakoh which captures the energy of the room without going overboard in the effects arena ala Challengers, it is a rumination on friendship and brotherhood among young men in the sports arena. 

 
Also a study of how the quiet and introverted ones may secretly be harboring unparalleled unbeatable talents, this ensemble youth sports drama is at ones a paean to the uphill battle in losing one’s self to table tennis and how the mutual friendships bring better skills out of each other.  Supporting performances by the veteran players are good though this saga mainly boils down to the three principal characters Peco, Smile and Dragon who all in their own ways channel ferocious gameplaying despite having very different personalities altogether.

 
88 Films Region A/B limited edition Blu-ray premiere of Ping Pong comes to western viewers presented in either 2.0 stereo or 5.1 surround sound in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen featuring a collector’s booklet with original essay writing by Jonathan Clements.  Also included in the disc itself is an audio commentary by Zack Davisson, an interview with Michael Arias on both manga artist Taiyo Matsumoto and his beloved creation Ping Pong and a video essay by renowned Japanese cinema guru Jasper Sharp. 

 
The case itself features reversible sleeve art featuring newly commissioned work as well as the original Japanese theatrical poster art.  As a newcomer to both the manga series and the film as well as the work of Fumihiko Sori, this was a splendid disc release and one of the more upbeat and exhilarating Japanese youth manga-to-film adaptations to come around in some time.  Hard to not be tickled pink by this one.

--Andrew Kotwicki