Only a few years ago, Osvald (Marius Repsys) was on top of the world, winning the kickbosing world championship in Japan, with a fight that was so short and conclusive it set a new world record. But as much on a high as he was then, as swift came his downfall when during a bar brawl he hit a girl- It was a total accident and he has apologized for it publicly, but that doesn't keep the video of the incident from spreading and ruining his reputation in the process, and he's eventually evicted from the kickboxing federation. So these days he lives a pitiful life, sleeping at the titular Chinese restaurant of his best friend Ju-Long (Jag Huang), doing odd jobs at the local gym and trying himself as the coach of a young hopeful (Samanta Drilingaite) - but he's not half as good a coach as an athlete, and the girl loses her first fight, and he his job as his past catches up with him. So eventually he becomes a muscle for the local mob  -and falls in love with the wrong woman (Severija Januasauskaite) ...

Now if you expect this film to be an action spectacle, given that it's set in both the martial arts and the gangster world, you'll be disappointed as the film treats its subject matter from a more mature perspective, putting character study over action and thus giving the story its time to unfold in long, often quite static shots, choosing gritty realism (down to mostly natural lighting) over genre stylizations, and actually avoiding any action setpieces. The result is a somwhat slow but yet fascinating piece of cinema, also carried by down-to-earth performances and a emöathetic script, a film that might demand a little patience but is well worth one's watch.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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