Nissin Cup Noodle — best friend of university students everywhere — has released its latest commercial that features Japanese pro tennis player Kei Nishikori, playing tennis with a wooden sword. I’d say this is crazy if it didn’t actually look pretty awesome.
Nishikori, dressed as historical Japanese sword master Miyamoto Musashi, and wielding a wooden sword carved from a paddle — like the weapon Musashi allegedly used in his famous duel with Sasaki Kojiro — is dancing around the court performing some pretty impressive acrobatics, much to the amazement of his opponent and the audience.
According to livedoor News, while multiple takes were probably necessary, that’s really a wooden sword Nishikori is using to volley, backhand, and serve with no CG gimmicks.
Nishikori is currently 5th in the world tennis ranking, so yeah, he’s good. Even so… Damn.
Comments
3 responses to “Playing Tennis With A Wooden Sword Is Like Something Out Of An Anime”
Reminds me of the scene in The One with Jet-Li punching and kicking the guys while they were in slow mo in the air. The scene was done by him attacking hanging tennis balls with the people added in after. Does not sound like much until you actually see the behind the scenes of it and just how quick and crazy accurate he is.
Impressive, but it only shows the shots of him hitting the ball, not where it goes. The few that you can make out it doesn’t look like the ball is going where it’s supposed to. Exception being him serving (i’m not entirely convinced it went in – impossible to tell with youtube – but hell it’s close enough).
Sadly with good video editing, and some time to practice, most people could probably achieve the same result.
It reminds me of the (faked, but still entertaining) ad featuring Bruce Lee playing table tennis with nunchaku – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SncapPrTusA
Now that was awesome! Even as a fake…
He’s hitting the ball with the flat of the blade, would not actually be that hard.