Peon-chi le-i-di

To begin with, the premise of "Punch Lady" stretches credibility to the limit: a person (forget the gender here) with absolutely no fighting training or experience publicly challenges a professional fighter, and champion (!), who just killed his latest opponent inside the ring, to a fight in the ring three months later, and the fight is allowed to go on? Officially? With a ref, huge crowds and everything? With the risk of the amateur's permanent injury or even death ignored? Now add the fact that the challenger is a woman who also happens to be the fighter's frequently abused wife, and you get the basic idea of "Punch Lady". But it seems that the filmmakers want to have their cake and eat it too: unpleasant dramatic scenes mix uncomfortably with broad attempts at comedy, while the film spends way too little time on the actual training of the heroine that would make the situation somewhat more believable. Even the climactic ring fight is not very well shot - too many cut-aways and weird angles. What holds the movie together is the female lead, who is very charming, can do drama, AND can throw a pretty damn good kick when she's allowed to, which is not nearly often enough. ** out of 4.