Alicia I love this movie so much

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Christophe Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

bigverybadtom 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.

ottaky 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.

krisyoungdesign This was a great movie to come out of Japan. The actors playing the roles made these characters come to life. Yôsuke Kubozuka, that played Peco (Peko) was such a dynamic character. Also, the actor that played Butterfly Joe was hysterical. The soundtrack which was a great mix of electronica and other genres, makes it so much better. And the special effects were subtle, but impressive. The effects didn't slap you in the face like the Hong Kong film Shaolin Soccer (even though I enjoyed that one too). Overall a great movie. Rent or buy it and check out the soundtrack.

yojimbo999 a terrific movie. i was surprised by how good and mature the screenplay was. the movie takes place in the world of high school ping pong, but really it's more of a human story about friendship and hero worshipping, and not living life like it's a curse. a good movie, highly recommended, even if you don't know a lick about ping pong (which pretty much sums up my experience).