Jornal da Mostra
Nº 345 > 28ª Mostra > 04/08/2005
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Mongolian Ping Pong - A contrast between the archaic and a world globalized.
Childhood naïveté, beautiful landscapes exquisitely photographed and a touch of childlike humor - these are the ingredients that set the tone for Mongolian Ping Pong, a feature by young director Ning Hao. The production, basically, focuses on a contrast between city and countryside and the cultural differences therein, but goes beyond, in affording a reading of the western influx into oriental tradition and the insertion of a country - as yet primitive from certain points of view - into a world globalized.The country in question is Mongolia. There, in a lonely Mongolian village live Bilike and his family. Although they have no access to running water, to electric light, with no modern features from the civilized world, life in the midst of nowhere may prove exciting to a boy such as he.
One day, for instance, he and his friends Erguotou and Dawa, come across a ping-pong ball. Never having set eyes on one before, they decide to ask the grandmother of one of the boys what this might be. She tells them the ball is an incandescent pearl brought down to them from the heavens above. They are soon to doubt this version of the truth, mainly when they wait up all of one night for the ball to shine. They subsequently decide to consult the wise lamas from the monastery, but even so, cannot fathom the mystery surrounding the tiny white ball. A first chance to view television provides an answer to their queries. Excited at the notion that the mysterious object is the "national ball of China", and completely unaware of the distance that keeps them from the rest of the country, they decide to carry the ping-pong ball with them to the capital of China.
Director Ning Hao, who majored in photography by the Beijing Film Academy, worked for Chinese TV and directed countless videoclips, many shown by Asian MTV. Mongolian Ping Pong is his third feature.
