Rikidozan, the movie

[El Negro Magnifico]

I'm surprised no one started a thread on this, but here's some info:
Official Site
Han Cinema (Korean Movie Database) Entry
Movie Poster
Korea Times Review

[FlyingAsassin27]

Wow!

I got my Rikidozan DVD set in the mail from yesasia.com yesterday and immediately starting watching it. Well, not exactly. It was a Region 3 DVD so I first had to hunt down a hacking code online to make my DVD player play Region 3's. Once I did that, then I started watching it.

The movie starts off in a dance club. There's a man on stage with a band talking on the microphone. The camera pans to a curtain on the other side of the club. All of a sudden, a man frantically comes running out. A few seconds later, Rikidozan comes from behind it. The curtain is in front of the Bathroom. The guy on the microphone says "You won't believe who just came in our club: it's the great Rikidozan!". A spotlight shines on him and he is ushered on to the stage. Rikidozan is sweating and the bandmaster asks him to say a few words. At first he refuses, but he then takes the microphone.

He says, "There is a mob hitman in this club". The crowd laughs. "He's here to kill me". The crowd continues to laugh. "I can see you don't believe me. They say that in place's like this there's always at least one person who could kill you at anytime. If you see this person, tell him that if he wants to kill me; to take on the greatest fighter...... get a ticket!" Riki said. The crowd laughs again. "I will welcome anyone with a ticket. See you in the ring!". With that, the sweaty and tired Rikidozan leaves the stage. The bandmaster takes back the microphone and is smiling. But then when he looks at his hand, his smile goes away. He notices that they are covered in blood from the microphone!

The next scene is Rikidozan in the backseat of a car with his jacket undone and his shirt covered in blood. "What is going on?" He asks. "What the hell is going on?!".

From there, it goes back to when he first arrives in Tokyo. It follows him from his years as a Sumo. Throughout the movie you see him get treated horribly for being Korean. He goes through many hardships before he goes to America to take up wrestling. It also follows his relationship with the love of his life, Aya.

The movie has lots of ups and also lots of downs. The director however seemed confused when it came to whether he wanted to make you to think that Riki was a low-life or instead was a hero. But I guess every man has his high times and his low times. If you're doing a bio-pic, you need to show everything. He did a good job at that.

I'll try and keep this short as I know many people on this forum have short attention spans. But I believe this movie was incredible! Whether you're a fan of Puro or not, if you love wrestling then you need this movie! I think that there aren't enough people alive today who know of Rikidozan. He should be a name that ANY wrestling fan should know. He is one of the most influential men in the history of the business. Without him, there would be know wrestling in Japan.

The movie was intense. It made me smile, it made me laugh, and it made me cringe. I'm man enough to admit that at the end of the movie, yes; I cried. I haven't cried at the end of a movie in a LONG time. It touched me that much and it's such a shame that Rikidozan was taken from us before his time. All in all, whether you get a hong kong bootleg for $7 on eBay or you go to yesasia.com and buy the actual release, you MUST see this movie! As a wrestling fan, you have no excuse.

The only gripe I have of this movie, is the scene in which he is murdered. I'll go ahead and scroll down to write my gripes so that I don't get *****ed at for spoiling.....





























In the scene in which Riki is stabbed, they make him out to be the one who started it! The Yakuza member just tells Riki he's a big fan of his and Riki goes off on him. He beats him down and the mobster is crying and telling him to stop. He only stabs him in self-defense, seems shocked after he does it, and runs off!

Anyone who knows the story of Rikidozan know that that's not true.

But that's the only thing wrong with an otherwise beautiful film.

[Haiku Warrior]

Sounds like a great DVD! My question on his death is how does anyone know what ACTUALLY happened? My other quesiton would be why the director goes this route? Typically you would want you "hero" to look heroic.

[Uraken]

My bet is maybe the director didn't want to have problems with the Yakuza claiming that they really did it or something. Just a guess. Or to make Riki look like he wasn't a sissy. I don't know.