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Kenka Ereji
Fighting Elegy
The Born Fighter / Elegy to Violence
Japan 1966
produced by
Kazu Otsuka for Nikkatsu
directed by Seijun Suzuki
starring Hideki Takahashi, Yusuke Kawazu, Junko Asano, Takeshi Kato, Isao Tamagawa, Kayo Matsuo, Mitsuo Kataoka, Seijiro Onda, Hiroshi Midorigawa, Chikako Miyagi, Keisuke Noro, Asao Sano
screenplay by Kaneto Shindo, based on the novel by Takashi Suzuki, music by Naozumi Yamamoto, art direction and production design by Takeo Kimura
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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Japan, the mid-1930's: Kiroku (Hideki Takahashi) is a quiet young man
who's deeply in love with Michiko (Junko Asano), the daughter of the
owners of the boarding house he's staying at. Problem is that she's a
catholic, and he too has become a catholic to please her, but he's much to
shy to really get something started, and in order not to masturbate (a sin
according to catholic beliefs), he has found fighting as a vent for his
sexual frustration, joining various fight clubs and usually winning his
fights. Problem is, he is a really good fighter, and that gets quiet
Kiroku into trouble time and again - so much trouble that he is eventually
expelled from his school and relocated to the country to finish his
education. In the country and far from Michiko, his sexual frustration
only grows, and he picks more and more fights with the proud locals who
usually look down on city dwellers like Kiroku. But winning most of his
fights, he wins the respect of the right-wing teachers of his school. Eventually,
Kiroku is tricked into taking on a battalion of the Japanese army pretty
much on his own, and even though he fights valiantly, he's ultimately
beaten to a pulp. Once he has gotten better, Michiko comes for a visit,
but while he hopes she will finally become his girlfriend, she only
reveals to him that she is going to become a nun ... When news arrive
that revolutionary forces are attacking the gouvernment, he decides to go
there for the biggest of all fights ... As with many of
director Seijun Suzuki's films for Nikkatsu, the plot of this one
doesn't sound like much, just your typical martial arts movie - but
Fukasaku has turned it into something completely else, a hilarious genre
comedy that self-consciously makes fun of its own concept without
ridiculing it, instead it's filled up with unusual plottwists and weird
and wonderful setpieces (including several intentionally clumsy fight
scenes) from beginning to end, and populated with eccentric characters
that it's a joy to watch. And Hideki Takahashi's rendition of the sexually
repressed young man is worth the price of admission alone. Pretty much a
masterpiece.
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amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Fighting Elegy at adultvideouniverse.com
