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DIR Return to: Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week
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#Post#: 21490--------------------------------------------------
Sheriff Lonestar goes to the Movies; Rikidōzan
DIR By: SheriffLonestar
Date: December 8, 2013, 1:33 pm
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For those of you with an interest in the history of pro
wrestling, specifically Japanese pro wrestling, Rikidōzan
is a must see. For those of you who do not know the story of
Rikidōzan its as an important a story as that of Hulk Hogan
to American wrestling or El Santo's to Mexican wrestling.
The film begins as Rikidōzan's life sadly ended, in a night
club having just been stabbed by a Yakuza. The film then goes
back to his earliest days as a Sumo trainee and takes up the
story of this rebellious but committed performer. He uses hes
peers and masters racist attitudes against them to secure
himself a slot on the Sumo tour (being a Korean in Japan in the
'40s was not much fun), but is released when we join him ten
years later. His relationship with Mr. Kanno, a yakuza backer of
Sumo is explored as well as his relationship with Aya a young
Geisha musician. After losing his job Rikidōzan sets about
restoring things to order by getting drunk in a strip bar and
starting a fight with a yakuza thug. He is brought down to earth
by Harold Sakata a pro wrestler played here by Keiji "The Great
Muta" Mutoh, you know Sakata better as Odd Job the body guard to
Goldfinger in the James Bond film Goldfinger. Sakata challenges
Rikidōzan to come down to his gym. Coming down suitably
tooled up Sakata proceeds to hand him his ass and Rikidōzan
realises that perhaps there is something to this wrestling lark
after all. He sets off to America to train and develop as an in
ring character. Thus inventing the Dojo system currently in
place in every major wrestling promotion in the world.
The rest of the film takes place in the late fifties and touches
on some great stories of the time and uses a lot of wrestling
personalities in its story telling, as well as Mutoh we have the
late great Shinya Hashimoto as Azumafuji the Sumo Yokuzuna who
turns to pro wrestling. Though the film does not mention the two
most famous students of Rikidōzan, Giant Baba and Antonio
Inoki it does have a part for the third of that trio, a fellow
Korean immigrant who has a lot in common with Rikidōzan;
Kintaro Ohki. Rick Steiner, Makoto Hashi and Go Shiozaki also
appear in the wrestling and training sequences.
Though this Korean film was clearly made to honour the great man
himself it does not shy away from his less favorable traits, he
was a paranoid medicinal drug user, womaniser and heavy drinker
and it is only fair that this be brought into balance, but the
film is not tawdry. It explains how one wrestler, some clever
promoters and a fervent whip of nationalism made Japan sit up
and take notice, and how they used the revolution of Television
to secure wrestling a place in Japanese culture. It also
explores the hardheadedness of a major star towards the end of
his career when he can not see the wood for the trees.
Enjoy the film;
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce_YiQezQgk
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