I believe that the element of death and rebirth is an important one for just about any sports movie. Death and rebirth are both very prominent factors in Ping Pong the movie. Peco is a high school student that wants nothing more than to be the greatest ping pong player in history. He is a very emotional player and when he loses to an old rival in a tournament he puts up his paddle. This is not a death in the sense of a human being dying, but it is an emotional and personal death. Peco walks around pointlessly after his defeat and he sees his entire life as a failure. When there is going to be a inter high school tournament Peco decides to compete. He soon realizes that he is out of shape and out of practice. He then has a rebirth as he ounce again has something to live for. Another character that experiences death and rebirth is Dragan. He is the best high school player in Japan. He views himself as the absolute best and any failure is seen as unacceptable. He loses to Peco this causes an emotional death as well as a death of his belief in his own superiority. There is also an almost instantaneous rebirth of his emotional life though because he realizes that Peco is the better player. Another Character that comes to experience rebirth is Smile. He never truly experiences death but he experiences an emotional rebirth when he succeeds at beating many players that were much better than him. Then he realizes the ultimate form of rebirth and is completely at peace with himself when he loses to Peco.