ping pong
starring kubozuka yousuke as peco and iura arata as smile, ping pong is a story about ... ping pong. while the story's main thing is ping pong, it doesn't forget its tune of friendship and relationships, either.
peco and smile are childhood friends, along with sakuma (nicknamed akuma). smile gets bullied by the other kids, so peco saves him -- and then decides to teach him how to play ping pong because he doesn't know how to.
the catch is, smile has more natural talent than peco does at the game, and that's when the story truly starts.
in the beginning, you see peco being very good at the game, but as the chinese saying goes: there is always a taller mountain; smile hasn't been winning simply because he loses on purpose. he simply doesn't win out of compassion for his opponents.
peco is naturally cocky, and after a few defeats, doesn't want to play ping pong anymore. smile on the other hand, was defeated, and starts playing ping pong seriously, starts playing to win.
you can see how the story takes a turn for the two childhood friends alongside akuma, who is also their childhood friend, but from a different academy. even though he is a supporting character, it doesn't feel like he got the short end of the stick for character development.
(they included the logo for ping pong here haha)
the same can be said for the rest of the supporting cast -- be it tamura/obaba, joe the coach, or dragon (played by shido nakamura, wow i couldn't recognize him), or even the chinese player (sam lee, whom i knew from playing very comedic roles in tvb dramas), none of them feel sidelined, and at the end of the movie, it doesn't feel like their stories weren't explained. in fact, they got their development and their ends tied up, which is immensely satisfying.
at the end of the movie, a boy (who is played by sometani shota; had to find where he was in the movie after i saw his name in the credits) is being taught how to play ping pong.
he doesn't know how to serve; but smile didn't, too. the ending scene is where everything comes full circle.
because if you realize:
some play to win. some play for fun. ping pong may be an important facet of their life, but it isn't their entire life, either.