В Японии выходит аниме-фильм «Ping Pong» с уникальной визуальной стилистикой и живым исполнением

During a summer in the mid-70s, my family came up to Boston for our summer vacation and got a big surprise. My cousin Bill’s parents converted their basement garage into a rumpus room. Along with a large picture window into the backyard and more cabinet space, they had a brand-new Ping-Pong table in the middle of the room. As a kid, this was a marvelous thing. The space was big enough to play yet not too huge. We didn’t have to spend most of the game running around retrieving missed Ping-Pong balls. This was the problem with playing at the Ft. Bragg Rec League Clubhouse near our home. Most of the game there was hunting for balls so we weren’t too enthused about the game. But it was different at my cousin’s place. During our entire summer vacation, there was always a few people in the rumpus room batting the balls around in either a serious game or practicing for when they want to challenge a cousin. It was the Summer of Ping-Pong in my memories. The next summer when we came up, the Ping-Pong table was covered in laundry. My cousin’s family did have 7 people in their house, so laundry was a huge deal. As much as I wanted to play more games, there was no way I was going to insist they “finish laundry” or even move the piles. Eventually their Ping-Pong table also was used for model railroad trains. While watching Ping Pong, I was struck by the thought at how many more games we would have played if our high school and college had Ping Pong as a sport like tennis. Would my cousins and myself had aimed for a scholarship in swatting the paddle? Ping Pong was adapted from Taiyō Matsumoto (Tekkonkinkreet) and explores the sport. Yutaka “Peco” Hoshino (Mio’s Cookbook‘s Yōsuke Kubozuka) and Makoto “Smile” Tsukimoto (Air Doll‘s Arata Iura) are teammates on their high school squad, but approach things differently. Peco is a show-off extrovert that enjoys hustling players at a Ping Pong palace run by Obaba (Spirited Away‘s Mari Natsuki). He also hangs out a video arcades and smokes away. Smile is an introvert. He trains hard for competition including a lot of roadwork. But his life isn’t completely about Ping-Pong. Both meet their match in high school legend Dragon. He clinches his second title by taking them out. But another school wants the glory and imports Kǒng “China” Wéngé from Shanghai. He quickly proves a bigger monster with a paddle than Dragon. Are Peco and Smile going to be forgotten on the scene? Or will they up their game and preparation? Ping Pong feels like a documentary at several points so that you forget these are actors and not really school kids getting caught up in the sport. it’s like Hoop Dreams with a paddle. Director Fumihiko Sori (Fullmetal Alchemist) let the emotions surge from his players. What’s interesting is he uses one special effect. During the matches, the Ping Pong balls are CGI. The amazing rallies are all fake. This is a great move since it allowed allows his actors to focus on each other and not the ball. They perfectly mime the games. I can only imagine the frustration the actors would feel if they needed to depend on their shots going in the right spots. The movie came out in 2002, but seems current. I also find it more entertaining than the other serious Ping Pong movie – Marty Supreme. It helps that there’s no acting hack like Kevin O’Leary (Shark Tank putz) to pull down the vibe. The big thing I learned from Ping Pong is that maybe it was good that there was no high school teams near us during the ’70s. The movie makes the sport look more intense than playing basketball or football. We would have been trounced with the level of our game during the Summer of Ping Pong. The Video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The transfer is sharp so you can see the ball speeding across the table (even if it is CGI). The Audio is Japanese DTS-HD MA 5.1. There’s also the 2.0 DTS-HD MA mix. You can hear the ball bouncing. The movie is subtitled in English. Audio Commentary by Zack Davisson lets him talk about the adaptation has the feeling of a manga. He explains a bit of cultural context to the action. An Artist’s Take: Michael Arias on Taiyo Matsumoto and Ping Ping (21:30) has the American director talk about manga artist Taiyo Matsumoto. Arias adapted his Tekkonkinkreet book to become the first American to direct an anime in Japan. Taiyo came from an artistic and eccentric family. Although they did send him to a foster home for several years. This was adapted into Sunny. A Different Class: A Video Essay by Jasper Sharp (13:43) gets into how the film played to the manga. We see the original dynamic art which is captured in the frame. While this is live action, it does have the anime feel on the screen. Trailer (1:35) has the ball bouncing all over the screen. Limited Editon Booklet has an essay by Jonathan Clements on the movie. 88 Films present Ping Pong: Limited Edition. Directed by Fumihiko Sori. Screenplay by Kankurō Kudō. Starring Yosuke Kubozuka, Arata, Sam Lee, Shidō Nakamura, Kōji Ōkura, Naoto Takenaka & Mari Natsuki. Running Time: 115 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: July 28, 2026.