Tokyo Fist (1995)

Suspecting that his childhood friend, a professional boxer, is having an affair with his fiancee, a businessman starts training rigorously himself in order to take him down.

Director:

Shin'ya Tsukamoto

Writers:

Hisashi Saito (story), Shin'ya Tsukamoto (story)

Stars:

Kaori Fujii, Shin'ya Tsukamoto, Kôji Tsukamoto

2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Kaori Fujii	...	Hizuru
Shin'ya Tsukamoto	...	Tsuda Yoshiharu
Kôji Tsukamoto	...	Kojima Takuji
Naomasa Musaka	...	Haze
Naoto Takenaka	...	Ohizumi
Koichi Wajima	...	Shirota
Tomorô Taguchi	...	Tattoo master
Nobu Kanaoka	...	Nurse
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Akiko Hioki
Kiichi Mutô

Storyline

A businessman, Tsuda, runs into a childhood friend, Tajuki, on the subway. Tajuki is working as a semiprofessional boxer. Tsuda soon begins to suspect that Tajuki might be having an affair with his fiancée Hizuru. After an altercation, Tsuda begins training rigorously himself, leading to an extremely bloody, violent confrontation.

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Plot Keywords:

written and directed by cast member | punching bag | nurse | bloodbath | pain | 

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Thriller

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese English

Release Date:

22 May 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

I grothia tou Tokyo

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kaijyu Theater

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min 87 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White (inserts only) Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

[Tsuda has just been beaten nearly to death]
Tsuda: At least I don't have any problems staying awake anymore.

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Connections

Features The Third Man (1949)

User Reviews

Anger, violence, pain and revenge drive the action

Tsukamoto in this film strips away excess to reveal a animal emotions which are then stretched to excess. In this film anger, violence, pain and revenge drive the action.

Tsuda and Kojima witness the murder of a girl they like and while both vow to find and punish the killers only Kojima holds on to the twisted dream to become a second rate boxer. Tsuda becomes a salaryman in a sexless relationship in which they spend the evenings watching old films (I spotted Metropolis and another which I can't place). A chance meeting between the two after many years awakens the anger that Kojima feels towards Tsuda, and the former begins making a play for Hizuru, Tsuda's girlfriend. This in turn leads Tsuda to become angry and he turns to boxing to get revenge on his former friend. Meanwhile Hikuru becomes a masochist, autonomous of both the males.

The fairly graphic violence is mostly make up and is so over the top it is clearly to make the point mentioned in one of the other comments: violence is often the first recourse in a situation. However, as opposed to a film like Rocky where the violence leads to personal redemption, or an emotional force like Raging Bull, the violence is non-cathartic and meaningless. It is almost as if the characters are driven to behave in a certain way as a reflex reaction.

Fast editing, powerful sound effects and blue colours mark the film out as Tsukamoto's style, and the transformation theme is another element that he returns to. Lots of fun for me, but the person I was with didn't have a clue what was going on. Make your own decision, but there is no relationship to Fight Club whatsoever: this is about human emotion, not social issues.