Pieces of 2008 Beijing Olympics on Universal Sports

Recently on Universal Sports, they've been showing the main events from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This past week, they had the Men's and Women's Gymnastics Finals on during prime time.

In each case, it was the story of the underdog team from the USA battling for a medal against the favorites from China. In the end, the pressure seem to get to the US teams more as China took gold in both. Last night, it was a whole night on pothead Phelps.

While getting some of the 2008 Olympic action, a short ad for Universal Sports comes on. Its a ping pong table and 2 guys hit the ball back to each other. It than cuts to a montage of Table Tennis (all look Chinese). The end was that there would be more Table Tennis on Universal Sports this summer.

I get Universal Sports on 4.4 here in Los Angeles.

The website is terrible. I can't find the schedule beyond 2 days and it doesn't recap events it has broadcast.

Check out clips from their YouTube channel.

Ping Pong - 乒乓

Ping Pong (乒乓) is a 2002 film out of Japan.

The story follows two friends that are on the school ping pong team. These two friends have been friends since childhood. The charismatic Peco wants to be the best ping pong player in the world. Smile is the introverted friend that also picks up ping pong. The pair practice together with Peco as the attacker and Smile as the defender. Peco always wins and doesn't care much for the school team.

The movie also includes Sam Lee of Hong Kong as a reject ping pong player from the China team. Hoping to make it back into the spotlight in Japan.

The movie turns into a coming of age of story for both Peco and Smile. Smile is the timid introvert that's unwilling to upset people. Smile enjoys some success and turns into a prima-donna while Peco's defeats have him soul searching. Smile about his introvert-ness. Peco about his ping pong work ethic. Peco cruise through life on his talents without putting in the time. Smile was always just tagging along.

The movie is a little long, but the story was unique and the coming of age part was quite enjoyable. However, I wasn't drawn in with any of the characters too deeply. But you don't always need to be if the story flows and entertains.