Review by Josh

Out of all the DVDs I was planning on watching Ping Pong, the live action adaptation of Taiyo Matsumoto’s Ping Pong manga, was the one I expected to least enjoy (that’s saying something, considering I was planning on watching The Hills Have Eyes 2). I’ve never really liked live action films. Scratch that. I’ve never watched live action films, yet I’ve maintained this negative view towards them for some reason. Maybe it’s the often overdone computer animation or the changing of important story elements. I know now that I’m an idiot for creating such fallacious presumptions, Ping Pong blew me we away with its surreal story.

The first scene portrays a high school boy, ‘Peco’ Hoshino, standing on top of a bridge, as if to jump. A bike riding officer pleads with the boy, Don’t Jump!, There’s more to live for! When Peco tells the dull-witted officer that he’s not going to die, just fly, the officer becomes giddy, eventually yelling out YOU CAN FLY! In a moment of comedic music, Peco jumps. Safely into a shallow river. At this point I perked up, I love crude humor.

Peco and his friend ‘Smile’ Tsuikomoto have been playing table tennis since childhood. Both have formed a strong friendship as they continue to play on their high school’s team, the cocky Peco always being balanced by the quite and withdrawn Smile. These characteristics soon change when their high school team enters a table tennis tournament with other strong opponents. When Peco is continuously crushed in matches, he loses his self-esteem and quickly heads into a downward spiral. Smile on the other hand performs at the top of his game, yet cannot overcome his inability to win against opponents who may face consequences if beaten.

Both Peco and Smile go through a range of character development, up and down. They face the emotional stress of loss and anticipation, helplessness and expectation. All they need is right in front of them and has been for years, the hero to save the day.

Computer graphics are minimal, most notably only used during dramatic scenes, and in high paced table tennis matches. There is a slight overuse of edge enhancements in some scenes, such high sharpness can cause a grainy look, especially in the visible rays of light; it’s nothing to worry about and took multiple viewings to even pinpoint. In my opinion the amount of computer generated animation and vivid coloring was perfect, everything was balanced from scene to scene, with no loss of high quality.

The Ping Pong DVD is in widescreen format, featuring Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound audio, optimally used to create a great ambience with background cheers and ball-bouncing sounds. The music is high quality, perfectly chosen for dramatic and comedic scenes to enhance the mood.

The staggering amount of Extras on this DVD release is really the icing to a wonderful cake. Disc 1 includes cast biographies and trailers for other live action films from Viz. Disc 2 features the “Making of Ping Pong,” 54 minutes of incredibly insightful production descriptions. “Ting Pong,” a hilarious and downright creepy parody of the film, and a “How to Play Ping Pong” video with great tips and style of play tutorials are also included. Other extras include promotional trailers and video for the movie.

Overall, Ping Pong is a great film that blew away all my expectations and completely changed my negative view towards live actions movies. The story of friendship development through competition is superb. This is a must see release.