With the advent of the independent film
movement, due to festivals like
Sundance and a slew of newer film
festivals, a crop of film makers have
developed new styles of film making
involving new techniques in
cinematography, story structure and
direction. Many of these "new wave"
indie movies feel much like music videos:
lots of quick cuts, frantic pacing, "Matrix"
style computer enhancements and flashy
special effects-laden shots. Likewise,
film makers from Korea, China, Hong
Kong and Japan have followed suit with
their own adaption of this new style,
heavily influenced by the efforts of their
western counterparts. Wong Kar Wai's
films are a prime example of this stylish
film making. The Japanese movie, "Ping
Pong", also reflects the styling of this new
type of cinema. Based on a manga by
Matsumoto Taiyo, the story follows a
friendship between two young ping
pong players, "Smile" Tsukimoto and
"Peco" Hoshino, both struggling to find
meaning in their lives on a table tennis
court.
Sound and Video Quality: excellent
sound and video; nice clear 5.1 surround
sound and crisp clean video picture, with
no microblocking or defects. Obviously a
R2 rip. The menus are in Japanese, but
throught some stumbling around with the
DVD remote, you can make out what
the settings are.
Subtitle Quality: Superb English
subtitles with excellent timing. No Engrish
and very accurate Japanese translation
(with the exception of some of the
Cantonese translation). Even the
Japanese names are correct. The
subtitles are in yellow with drop shadow,
making them very easy to read.
Professional quality.
Story and Enjoyability: Unfortunately, this
is where the movie miserably fails in my
humble opinion. Watching Ping Pong is
like watching a music video; flashy, fast
paced but totally lacking substance or
depth (I compare it to watching "Moulin
Rouge", one of my least favorite
movies). The story is paper thin and
because the cuts between scenes are
so frantic and so drastic, the continuity is a
mangled, structural mess. I could not
empathize with any of the characters
(even if I wanted to), and just when you
start to know a bit about the character's
personalities in one or two "mood"
scenes, the film cuts to another scene
totally out of sequence, destroying the
atmosphere of the previous scene.
There are lots of flashy special effects
shots, slo mo shots and surreal scenes
that are nice to look at, but as a whole,
add up to absolutely nothing. You would
think with Ping Ping matches sprinkled
throughout the movie, that there would
be some suspense, tension or build-up
of competition between players. That is
not the case. The last scenes at the final
Ping Pong tournament seem almost
anti-climatic and overtly sentimental and
melodramatic. Near the end of the
movie, the ends finally start to tie
together, but by that time, it is too late.
Neither one of the main characters,
"Smile" or Peco are really likable. The
Character, "Peco", is an androgenous
freak of a she-boy; irritating, loud and
hyperactive (like some of those irritating
hyperactive girls at the anime
conventions). Whenever Peco
appeared in a scene, I wanted to throw a
rock at the TV screen. And why does a
mainland Chinese Ping Pong player from
Shanghai speak with a Cantonese
dialect, when literally all Shanghai natives
speak Mandarin dialect or Shanghainese
dialect? It may be nit-picking, but if you're
going to make a Japanese film about
Ping Pong, don't you think this film will
eventually make it to Hong Kong and
China film markets, where Ping Pong is a
major sport and national passion? Little
details sometimes do matter. There will
be some Chinese laughing when they
find this major inconsistancy.
In any case, if you have a MTV
2-second attention span, suffer from
Attention Deficit Disorder or just enjoy
looking at nearly two hours of mindless,
ping pong eye candy (sprinkled with lots
of "Peco" and a dour "Smile"), you might
possibly like or even love this "music
video" paced movie. However, if you
are looking for what makes a good
movie: a strong plot, great character
development and a semblance of a
structured contunity, then avoid this game
at all costs. This "Ping Pong" ball lands
with a big thud.
(5.83)