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As a child, the introverted Smile was being bullied by a gang of kids until the brash Peco came by and chased all of them away. Peco then takes Smile under his wing and teaches him how to play the game of ping pong. From there, a lifelong... See more »

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Cast

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Yutaka Hoshino / Peco
Arata Iura ...
Makoto Tsukimoto / Smile (as Arata)
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Kong Wenge / China
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Ryûichi Kazama / Dragon
Kôji Ohkura ...
Manabu Sakuma / Demon
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Butterfly Joe
Mari Natsuki ...
Obaba
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yoshiyoshi Arakawa
Takahiro Hirano
Mako Ishino
Erika Mabuchi
Suzuki Matsuo ...
Policeman
Asumi Miwa
Ayumu Moriyama
Akira Nishihara
Kaei Okina ...
(as Hua Rong Weng)
Teppei Sasaki
Mikio Satô
Kenichi Suemitsu
Kiyotaka Suzuki
Yôhei Toyoda
Shinji Yamashita
Satoshi Ôe

Directed by

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Fumihiko Sori

Written by

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Taiyô Matsumoto ... (comic)
 
Kankurô Kudô ... (screenplay)

Produced by

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Toru Ishitoya ... assistant producer
Shinji Ogawa ... producer
Tamotsu Shiina ... executive producer
Sanae Suzuki ... producer
Mitsuru Uda ... assistant producer

Cinematography by

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Akira Sako ... (as Akira Sakoh)

Editing by

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Sôichi Ueno ... (as Soichi Ueno)

Art Direction by

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Koichi Kanekatsu

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director

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Shinsuke Ono ... assistant director

Sound Department

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Mizuki Ito ... foley artist
Akihiko Okase ... sound effects
Hitoshi Yamada ... sound

Visual Effects by

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Kazuyuki Endo ... cg designer: Digital Frontier
Hideki Fukuchi ... cg operator: Digital Media Lab
Makoto Fukushima ... cg producer: Digital Media Lab
Takeshi Harada ... cg designer: Digital Frontier
Junichiro Hoshikawa ... cg artist: TBS CG
Tadao Matsuno ... cg director
Tomoyo Nakanishi ... cg designer: Digital Frontier
Tetsuya Nozawa ... cg designer: Digital Frontier
Fumikazu Sato ... cg operator: Digital Media Lab
Manabu Tagawa ... cg operator: Digital Media Lab
Yoichiro Tajiri ... cg designer: Digital Frontier
Toshinori Takata ... technical director
Yûsaku Toyoshima ... cg producer: Digital Frontier
Yasuhiro Ôtsuka ... cg director: Digital Frontier (as Yasuhiro Ohtsuka)

Stunts

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Tatsumi Nikamoto ... stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department

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Koichi Kuroda ... still photographer
Kôichi Watanabe ... gaffer

Script and Continuity Department

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Christian Storms ... script translation

Production Companies

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Distributors

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Special Effects

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Other Companies

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Storyline

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Plot Summary

As a child, the introverted Smile was being bullied by a gang of kids until the brash Peco came by and chased all of them away. Peco then takes Smile under his wing and teaches him how to play the game of ping pong. From there, a lifelong best friend relationship comes into existence between these two polar opposite kids. Fast forward a decade later, and Smile and Peco are now about to compete in a high-stakes regional ping pong tournament. While Peco has always wanted to be the best ping pong player in the world, he has never had the drive to fully devote himself to the game. Rather than finding him practicing in the high school gym, you would more often than not find Peco hustling other kids out of money at the local ping pong parlor. This is in contrast with Smile, who has the god-given talents to actually become the worlds best ping pong player but is too humble to destroy his opponents. More often than not, he allows his opponents to win points and even entire games out of sympathy for them. Now these two best friends try to deal with their own inner turmoils as they move further and further into the regional ping pong tournament. Peco has to overcome a knee injury while trying to rediscover the fun aspects of the game of Ping Pong. Meanwhile, Smile now seems to have gained the killer instinct by going through a rigorous training regiment instilled by his high school coach. As the tournament progresses, it becomes more likely that these two best friends will face off against each other in the final match.

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Additional Details

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Also Known As
  • ピンポン (Japan, Japanese title)
  • Ping-Pong (World-wide, English title)
  • Ping Pong (United Kingdom)
  • Пинг-понг (Russia)
  • 乒乓 (Taiwan)
  • See more »
Runtime
  • 114 min
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Box Office

Opening Weekend Japan $208,780, 09 Aug 2002

Did You Know?

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Trivia Based on a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Taiyou Matsumoto about table tennis. It was serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Big Comic Spirits from 1996 to 1997 and collected in five tankobon volumes. See more »
Movie Connections References Gigantor (1964). See more »

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