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During this match, Dragon experiences the joy of playing table tennis for the first time. Peco and Smile meet in the final. Several years later, Peco has fulfilled his dream of playing professionally in Europe, while Smile helps a young boy learn the sport. A photo behind Smile shows Peco, Smile and Dragon having taken first, second and third places respectively.
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characters have known each other, and Demon (Akuma 悪魔, real name Manabu Sakuma), since primary school. Despite Smile's greater natural talent, he sees the sport as simply a way to pass the time, and often lets less able players such as Peco beat him out of consideration for their feelings. Peco hears about a new table tennis player brought over from
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is nevertheless perceptive about male social hierarchies and the benefits of knowing your place. Between the pistoning elbows and whizzing balls, the director, Sori, repeatedly films his protagonists sitting on stairs, subtly altering their positions as the story progresses. In fact, when not busying
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Sakuma confronts Peco, telling him he lost because he was coasting. Peco jumps into a river as a symbolic rebirth and trains with Tamura to get back into his school team. In the next high school tournament, Peco beats China in the first round and Dragon in the semi-final despite an injured knee.
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Peco (real name Yutaka
Hoshino) and Smile (real name Makoto Tsukimoto) are members of Katase High table tennis club. Peco is charismatic and has a passion for the sport, while Smile is introverted. Tsukimoto's friends in the table tennis club nicknamed him "Smile" as he does not smile often. The
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players. The film concentrates on these two friends, their two mentors, and three players who they encounter at high school table tennis tournaments. It explores the different motivations and philosophies that they have towards table tennis and tries to portray the excitement and subtlety of the
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himself with slow-motion sweat and eye-popping backspins, Sori has a lot to say about the heart-versus-skill conflict and the demands of natural talent. It's just difficult to hear him over the noise of those balls".
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reported an 75% approval rating with an average rating of 6,60/10, based on 20 critic reviews. Jeannette
Catsoulis from
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praised the film and stated "Stylistically stunning and completely nuts,
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won the 'Newcomer of the Year' prize for his performance as Dragon.
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369:(Ping Pong Original Short Size)—Yoshinori Sunahara (4:28)
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345:(Ping Pong Original Short Size)—Sugar Plant (6:37)
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339:(Ping Pong Original Short Size)—Dub Squad (5:23)
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385:(Ping Pong Original Short Size)—Cicada (4:52)
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738:Live-action films based on manga
329:(Ping Pong Original Short Size)—
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562:"Table Tennis as Extreme Sport"
464:"26th Japan Academy Film Prize"
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286:(Dragon), Kōji Ōkura (Akuma),
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231:manga series of the same name
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485:第26回 日本アカデミー賞特集（2003）全受賞一覧
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516:(in Japanese). Stingray
488:(in Japanese). eiga.com
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159:July 20, 2002
778:2000s Japanese films
509:日本アカデミー賞 2002年(第26回)
377:Boom Boom Satellites
363:—World Famous (3:01)
710:Fullmetal Alchemist
472:. October 13, 2022.
758:Table tennis films
664:Films directed by
567:The New York Times
438:The New York Times
270:The cast includes
16:2002 Japanese film
773:2002 comedy films
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429:review aggregator
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152:Release date
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88:Sanae Suzuki
84:Shinji Ogawa
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55:Kankuro Kudo
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581:October 13,
545:October 13,
520:October 13,
492:October 13,
361:Canned Beat
235:high school
179:114 minutes
146:Akira Sakoh
77:Produced by
41:Directed by
733:2002 films
727:Categories
450:References
298:Soundtrack
163:2002-07-20
125:Kōji Ōkura
51:Written by
678:Ping Pong
624:Ping Pong
613:Ping Pong
576:0362-4331
514:allcinema
443:Ping Pong
420:in 2003;
414:Ping Pong
409:Reception
349:Breakdown
282:(China),
278:(Smile),
203:Ping Pong
66:Ping Pong
24:Ping Pong
629:AllMovie
431:website
397:— (1:51)
351:— (2:21)
337:E.D.E.N.
327:La Peggi
309:Supercar
274:(Peco),
252:Shanghai
195:Japanese
192:Language
99:Starring
61:Based on
686:Vexille
383:Cicabow
280:Sam Lee
241:sport.
216:Pin Pon
184:Country
161: (
116:Sam Lee
713:(2017)
705:(2012)
697:(2008)
689:(2007)
681:(2002)
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379:(5:26)
367:No Sun
355:Before
333:(4:58)
311:(4:11)
276:Arata
256:China
187:Japan
111:Arata
694:Ichi
618:IMDb
583:2022
572:ISSN
547:2022
522:2022
494:2022
427:The
343:Rise
266:Cast
245:Plot
210:ピンポン
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375:—
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207:(
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
