Mongolian Pingpong

90 minutes / Color / Digital

Director: Ning Hao Screenwriter: Xing Aina

Synopsis

In the quiet borderlands of Inner Mongolia, change goes unnoticed. A young boy named Bilige finds a floating white ping pong ball, which his grandmother calls a luminous pearl. Bilige and his friends, Erguotou and Dawa, spend a night guarding the grassland but find nothing and remain puzzled even after consulting a lama.

During the annual Naadam Festival, the children mistake a golf ball on a movie screen for the luminous pearl. Learning it’s just a ping pong ball, Bilige disappointingly discards it. Later, they see on TV that ping pong is China’s national sport and decide to return the ball to the country.

The children set out secretly for Beijing but get lost and are rescued by grassland patrol. Bilige’s ball is crushed by his mother, leaving the children disheartened. Eventually, Bilige hears the familiar ping pong sound at his new school and walks into the ping pong room, finding new hope.