Ping Pong or Harry Potter? Does it really matter?

Spoiler Alert!!!: If you have not yet seen the movie Ping Pong and wish to view it in complete ignorance of the plot/characters/symbolism I would suggest that you not read this post. However, you may watch the movie at this website and then come back and read the post:

http://www.dramacrazy.net/japanese-movie/ping-pong-the-movie-watch/5452

The movie is fantastic. I would suggest it to anyone.
I believe that it's legal/ethical to view the movie on this site. If it's not then somebody please inform me of my ignorance and I'll take care of it. Don't report me to the honor code people.

Now that you've been warned, you may proceed at your own peril.
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While looking at Smile in the movie, over ten times I had to ask myself whether I was watching Ping Pong or Harry Potter. If a picture's worth a thousand words, then I'm way over the word count, but I think that it's fitting for us to analyze the similarities and differences in both the characters, symbolism, and plot of these two literary works.
(Ping Pong was a comic book before it was made into a movie)


If this doesn't help you understand the meaning of the movie, then hopefully it will at least put a Smile... Heh. get it? Smile... on your face. Oh nevermind...
















Why are the villains always bald? Maybe they just don't want to deal with the fuss of doing their hair every day --or maybe the writers mean something by it. Think about it.























I think that glasses in both of these cases means more than that the actors had poor vision.





"Enter the Hero!"
Peco can fly; Harry Potter can fly. A noble characteristic for our heroes, and definitely not one to be overlooked.



I love when Peco jumps off of the bridge because he "can fly." I think that it is important to recognize that through his failure to fly and failure to commit suicide that he is reborn and comes out of the water a new person. (Like baptism, if I may be so bold. I think that both types of renewal are very symbolically related.)
















Okay, lets talk about who the protagonist is in this movie. Honestly, I didn't have any idea even when it was over, but looking back on it I think that Peco has a more heroic role and consequently is our hero, but I think that an argument could be made for the theory that both friends act as heroes to each other and could be seen as dual-protagonists, if such a thing exists.

I also think that it's important for us to recognize that the similarities between these two movies goes way beyond similar looking people waving around wooden objects. I think that the Hero's Quest is a huge part of both these movies. I won't elaborate though, mostly because I don't remember all of it. I'll give a more comprehensive response in my revised post after I've watched Star Wars and brushed up on it a little bit. I would encourage you to do the same if necessary, and to keep on drawing connections between these works and others, that will help you to understand all of them better. I hope that I've touched on some points that will help you to find a deeper pleasure in the possible meanings of these movies than you would find solely in the happy ending and jokes that got us through it all.