Top Spin 2015
Distributed by First Run Features, 630 Ninth Avenue, Suite 1213, New York, NY 10036; 212-243-0600
Produced by First Run Features
Directed by Mina T. Son and Sara Newens
DVD , color, 81 min.
Middle School - General Adult
Table Tennis, Olympic sports training
Date Entered: 05/05/2016
Reviewed by Gary D. Byrd, University at Buffalo (SUNY)This very engaging sports documentary focuses on table tennis or competitive ping pong and three of the very few world-class competitors we have here in the United States. A state-supported national passion in China, ping pong, while played informally by millions, is almost unknown here as an Olympic-level competitive sport. The film follows three teenagers who have been training up to 6-hours-a-day most of their young lives with their coaches and families to qualify for the 2012 North American Olympic Table Tennis Team: the southern California, Korean- and Chinese-American friends and competitors Ariel Hsing and Lily Zhang and Michael Landers from Long Island, who at just 15 became the sport’s youngest US men’s champion. The film does an excellent job of documenting not only the thrilling pace and energy of this physically and mentally challenging sport but also how well these three “nice kids” have learned to handle the constant pressure of high-level competition and to both win and lose with an enviably mature grace.
Top Spin is the first full-length documentary film project for both Mina Son and Sara Newens, but both worked together previously in 2010 as director and editor on a documentary short version of Top Spin. They also each have individual directing and/or editing credits on a total of nine other documentary shorts (5 for Son and 4 for Newens). The film has also won awards at two 2015 film festivals.
The film is primarily a very entertaining sports film appropriate for general audiences ranging from late primary school to adults. As a documentary of the highest level of table tennis competition and the impact of intensive sports training on children and teenagers, it could be a valuable education resource for college and university athletic training or sports psychology programs. The DVD distributed by First Run Features includes six deleted scenes and an extended version of another scene, as well as biographies of the three featured teenage athletes.
Awards
- Best Documentary at CAAMFest, 2015
- Best Editing, Documentary Feature at VC FilmFest, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, 2015