The people of the trackless, vast prairies of Mongolia may be hopelessly disconnected from the nurture of industrial civilization, but they hardly notice it. Their lot in life may not be comfortable, but they wouldn't recognize the concept of a "lot in life" either. They have what they have, and it's enough.

But now and then, a little magic arrives.

One day, in "Mongolian Ping Pong," the irrepressible little guy known as Bilike -- I'm guessing he's 8 or so -- finds a glowing pearl in the river. Granny quickly confirms that the object is of some holy significance. You and I and most of the 6 billion other people in the world would of course recognize the holy pearl as a ping-pong ball. And wouldn't that be our loss? We'd never share the joy that the mysterious arrival brings to Bilike and its galvanizing force on his small society. To this boy, and director Hao Ning is brilliant in portraying this reality without sentimentalizing it, the object is tremulous with meaning, translucent with the blessings of heaven.

The action is set in that odd twilight zone between civilization and primitivism, where so much of the Third World remains. Hao understands that life in such vastness, with the steady incursion of objects from the great industrialized elsewhere, must necessarily be surreal. He's always on the lookout for touches of weirdness and has a dry visual wit to him.

Somehow, Hao never breaks the spell of enchantment over the proceedings. He doesn't find the characters quaint or amusing, he finds them real and human and confers the full dignity of existence upon them.

For that reason, this is one of the most becalming films ever made. The grasslands seem oddly serene, and to watch them is to feel your pulse rate flatten out -- yet another aspect of "Mongolian Ping Pong's" transcendent charm.

-- Stephen Hunter (July 21, 2006)

Contains nothing objectionable. In Mongolian with subtitles.