Rut 3 -PING PONG! - Elise Meservy

Wow. Seriously what more can I say. I have to admit that I was somewhat excited for this international cinema going into it, but not because I thought the movie was going to be amazing or anything. It was because I was excited to go to the international cinema and explore an international film. Sometimes I watch Bollywood videos for fun with my dear friend from India. I have never been out of the US and yet I have always had a great fascination and love for different ethnicities and cultures. And being at BYU you do not always get enough culture (well at least compared to where I lived in Vegas).

I loved watching a movie about Ping Pong from the Japanese perspective and yet with a Chinese character in it. I know that in some places in China Ping Pong is as important and competitive as it appeared in this movie. However, I do not know if it really is that big in Japan. It was also really cool to see the way Japanese and Chinese people treated each other, because to be honest I don't really know their relationships. However, I do remember my brother coming back from his mission to Japan and being able to recognize the difference between a Chinese and a Japanese person. Call me stupid (but not racist), but I find it so hard to decipher between the two by first glance. But it was interesting to see how the Japanese commented on the size of China and how they dogged on each other.

I thoroughly enjoyed all the characters in the movie. They were different and yet reminded me of other characters in American movies. And it was interesting to note the roles played by each character.

Like most people said, the subtitles did not bug me. I liked hearing the Japanese. I think that the Japanese people do some really cool stuff with the intonations of their voices. It was fun to listen to and to hear their English words come out.

Even though the movie had Buddha instead of God, I felt like it had some great morals to it. I love how Smile only smiled when Peco beat him. And I loved that Peco won in the end, because I also agree that passion should be able to beat talent always. You have to have emotion in it. ps I love the name Peco.

The experience was different, but very fascinating. I felt like I was looking at the film artistically, culturally, and morally but not as much worrying about plot as I would an American Movie. I plan on watching the movie again because I want to share it with some more of my friends and I missed the very end of the movie because I was looking down at a text I had just received. :(

I'm going to go home and practice my Ping Pong skills. I am no longer afraid of defeat.