ACF 048: Ping Pong

Peco gets some air!

Smile and Coach Butterfly Joe

Hot on the heels of the theatrical release of the ping pong themed martial arts parody Balls of Fury comes the two disc DVD realease of Ping Pong, the delightful 2002 film based on the five volume manga by Taiyo Matsumoto.

The film focuses on two friends who play on the same high school team. Lively "Peco" Hoshino sports a bowl-cut hair style (actually a wig worn by actor Yosuke Kubozuka), loves snack foods, and wants to be the greatest ping pong player on the planet. Trouble is, he's kind of lazy and frequently cuts practice.

His best friend is the quiet, introverted, bespectacled "Smile" Tsukimoto (former model Araka). He got his moniker because smiling is something he just doesn't do; Peco can only remember him smiling once since he rescued Smile from some bullies years ago. Smile is extremely talented, but claims to play only to kill time. He often doesn't play his best because he's sensitive to his opponents' feelings about being defeated.

These two have three main opponents from different schools. One is "China" (Sam Lee), who couldn't make the Chinese national team, so he came to Japan to play. He often provides knowledgeable commentary about the matches being played by the others.

The other two play for yet another school, one whose members all shave their heads. The captain of this team is "Dragon" (Shidou Nakamura, whose background is in Kabuki), who takes the game super seriously. "Demon" (Koji Ohkura) has known Peco and Smile for years.

Two other characters round out the main cast. Peco and Smile's school coach, "Butterfly" Joe, is played by Naoto Takenaka, who I first saw in A Night In Nude, but who is probably best known for his performance in the original version of Shall We Dance. Mari Natsuki (who to me looks a bit like a Japanese Helena Bonham Carter) plays "Granny"; she runs a ping pong establishment and takes Peco under her tutelage.

Fumihiko Sori specialized in Computer Graphics (he worked on James Cameron's Titanic) before undertaking this, his first directorial project He wanted to use his experience in CGI, but wound up using it even more than he initially planned.

This came about because he discovered that sometimes when using a real ping pong ball, the actors concentrated on the play and couldn't give him the facial expressions that he was after. To Sori, and his crew's credit, it's all but impossible to distinguish between actual ping pong balls and the CGI ones. Only in one scene, where several games are going on simultaneously and the players are each hitting in the same "one-two' rhythym, is it obviously CGI that we're watching.

Ping Pong won the Audience Award at the 2003 New York Asian Film Festival, an indication of its broad appeal. Hey, I'm a middle-aged white guy who's only played extremely casual ping pong, and the last time I did that was many years ago. But I've watched the film twice, and got caught up in the characters and the story both times.

Ping Pong has an interesting story about friendship and competition that isn't the least bit "preachy." The film is both comic and touching, great entertainment. And VIZ Pictures, which is putting out the DVD, has done fans a great service. Rarely are we treated to a two-disc release with lots of worthwile extras, as we are here. Thanks, VIZ!

For both the film itself and the extras packaged with it, Ping Pong gets a 3.5 out of 4 star ACF rating [Highly recommended].

Links:
Ping Pong [imdb]
Fumihiko Sori, director
Yosuke Kubozuka, actor [Peco]
Arata, actor [Smile]
Sam Lee, actor [China]
Shido Nakamura, actor [Dragon]
Koji Ohkura, actor [Demon]
Naoto Takenaka, actor [Butterfly Joe]
Mari Natsuki, actress [Obaba, a.k.a. "Granny"]

ACF 103: Maiko Haaaan!!!

Sadawo Abe, Kou Shibasaki, and Shinichi Tsutsumi

Maiko Haaaan!!!
Directed by Nobuo Mizuta
Japan, 2007, 120 min

Get ready, get set, go see this colorful, comedic confection about one man's obsession with maiko (apprentice geisha). Its one week exclusive run at the ImaginAsian Theater in Manhattan starts this Friday, April 18th, 2008.

Sadawo Abe (aka Sadao Abe) stars as Kimihiko (a.k.a. Kimi) Onizuka. Kimi's a lowly salaryman at a company that makes instant noodles (ramen) in Tokyo. He's also crazy for maiko and geisha, has been ever since meeting some in Kyoto while on a high school trip years earlier, as we learn in a flashback.

Sporting a bowl cut hairstyle that makes him look like a Japanese version of Moe Howard of The Three Stooges, Kimi is thrilled when he's transferred from the main office in Tokyo, where almost all of the ramen manufacturing takes place, to Kyoto, where only the toppings are made. He doesn't care that the transfer is a demotion, because it'll put him in proximity of the objects of his desire.

Once there he learns that the tea houses, where one enjoys the company of geisha, all have a "no first timer" policy. This requires that one be vouched for by a regular in order to be admitted, a rule intended to keep out coarse fools like himself. But Kimi is a resourceful fellow and eventually succeeds in having the company's president, Mr. Suzuki, vouch for him.

Shinichi Tsutsumi (left) and Kou Shibasaki (right)

He then meets Kiichiro Naito (Shinichi Tsutsumi, Japan Academy best actor award winner for 2005's Always - Sunset on Third Street). He's a famous pro-baseball player, a drunken lout, and a geisha aficionado. He also happens to be the individual who'd earlier flamed Kimi's website, correctly calling him out as an amateur who'd never been to a geisha house. This meeting sets up an ongoing rivalry that produces hilarious results.

Kou Shibasaki as Fujiko Osawa

Meanwhile, Fujiko (Kou Shibasaki, whose credits include Memories of Matsuko), the girlfriend Kimi dumped when he knew he was coming to Kyoto, has come to the city to become a maiko herself. Clearly she starts out hoping to win Kimi back, but things start to take a different turn once Kiichiro starts to exhibit a fervent liking for her.

Comic mayhem ensues what with the various rivalries and love interests, to say nothing of Kimi's crazy suggestions that somehow always succeed. It's all very upbeat and bouncy, aside from the one serious dramatic thread involving Kiichiro and another geisha, the very one who Kimi first met on that field trip several years ago.

Director Mizuta on the set

The film is smartly helmed by second time director Nobuo Mizuta. Born in 1958, his career started in TV in 1981. His first feature film was 2006's Hanada Shonen-Shi. I'm pretty sure that he's deliberately included one scene as a nod to the end of Akira Kurosawa's High and Low, which makes him pretty smart and knowledgeable if I'm correct. If I'm wrong about this homage, Mizuta's still a very talented fellow.

Kankuro Kudo wrote the script. He joined the OTONO KEIKARU theatre group in 1991, when he was about twenty-one years old. (Sadawo Abe joined the group in 1992.) Besides writing for theatre and TV shows, Kudo's film credits include Ping Pong, which I reviewed in ACF 048 and which is available on DVD from VIZ Pictures.

Maiko Haaaan!!! is a delightful, cheerful and funny film. I give it a 3 out of 4 star solid recommendation.

For information about Maiko Haaaan!!! at the ImaginAsian, click here.

I haven't been notified of any other planned screenings, but if I do rest assured I'll pass on the information. And while I always urge Asian film fans to support theatrical releases, I'm sure that there'll be a DVD release from VIZ Pictures, distributors of the film, in the near future, for those of you who can't make it to a live screening.