People are voting emotionally.

Excellent, a Must See

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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.

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!

Ping Pong is an entertaining variation on the tried and trusted idea of friends who are driven apart, and then reunited by something that they have in common. In this case, it's table tennis. In fact, that's pretty much all there is in this film - the relationship between the two lead characters and.. err .. table tennis.You don't need me to re-iterate the plot, so I won't bother.If this film has a fault it's that it didn't explore the back story of the relationships between the adult characters - it would have been nice to have seen them fleshed out a little more than they were - and that the screenplay would have benefited from some minor expansion in a few areas and a similar reduction in others.However, those are very minor niggles about what is a very well executed film that incorporates some unusual direction and that manages to include quite a few celluloid manga moments. My wife laughed out loud at some of the dialogue, so I can only assume that the Japanese soundtrack is more entertaining than the English subtitles, but I found myself enjoying the film regardless.Oh, and there are some nice location shoots, around Kamakura I think, that show off a small part of the beautiful Japanese coastline.If you get a chance to see this film in the cinema, do so - you won't be disappointed.

the movie is about these two boys who have been friends since they were young. they are both on the ping pong club team. the main character peco is a cocky kid who thinks that he is great, though he is, his best friend "smile" (because he doesnt) is equily as good but doesnt let himself try. the two join a tournament and peco loses to an easy foe while smile beats the only person to ever beat peco... make sense? anyway, the two separate. peco loses his will to play and smile trains harder than ever. they meet again at another tournament where at the end they are put against eachother by elimination. i think that the characters in this movie are pretty interesting. the acting for the most part is fairly good but also a little over the top in a few scenes because of how animated the peco character is. a few things are also pretty far fetched. i would say that it is overall a good movie but you cant take it too seriously or you will be let down.if you like this movie check out aoi haru (blue spring) it is based off of a manga by the same author that wrote ping pong... though much more violent, this movie is a fantastic movie. i would say to also check out kyoki no sakura staring kabozuke yosuke, also much more violent in nature, but a fantastic movie aswell.