Japan,
2002, 119 min
Shown in 2003
CREDITS
- dir
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Daisuke Tengan
- prod
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Hisa Iino, Shunsuke Koga, Yasushi Matsuda
- scr
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Daisuke Tengan
- cam
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Yi Yi-shu
- editor
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Hirohide Abe
- mus
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Meina Company
- cast
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Haruhiko Kato, Rie Tomosaka, Ryo Ishibashi
- source
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Nikkatsu Corporation, 28-12 Hongo, 3-Chome, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113 0033, Japan. FAX: 81-3-5689-1043. EMAIL: nobu@nikkatsu.co.jp.
-
COMMENTS
Hisa Iino in person.
OTHER
Based on a true story, this film is about a crippled down-and-out boxer who finds redemption through the love of a good woman and the mastery of a martial art. If that sounds like a recipe for gag-inducing sentimentality and Rocky-inspired power ballads, then think again. Of course, since Daisuke Tengan, the writer and director of Aiki, is the son and collaborator of master anti-sentimentalist Shohei Imamura (Warm Water Under a Red Bridge, SFIFF 2002), it’s only natural that he’d strip the “triumph of the human spirit” movie down to its skivvies. Taichi is a hotheaded boxer who sinks into a wallow of bitter, self-pitying drunkenness when he loses the use of his legs in a motorcycle accident. He eventually meets Samako, a slightly nutty young woman who offers him the first glimmer of respect he’s had in a long time, as well as introducing him to a mild-mannered salaryman (the great Ryo Ishibashi) who, as a master of aiki-jujutsu, can send an opponent flying through the air with a mere twitch of his wrist. Slowly, Taichi fights his way back to join the human race. It’s a boldly simple story, with a comically grungy cast of characters, told with such maudlin-free modesty that it feels like the reinvention of a genre.
—Tod Booth
FACTOID #177
In 2000 animator Faith Hubley was the recipient of the Persistence of Vision Award. One year later, her daughter Emily appeared at the Festival with her bandmates, Yo La Tengo, to perform a score accompanying the silent underwater films of Jean Painlevé.
