DDT Wrestling

While watching Calamari Wrestler, I couldn't help but think about a strange wrestling promotion in Japan called Dramatic Dream Team, or DDT. Many of the matches they put on seem to be comedy matches that poke fun at American pro-wrestling. There are wrestlers that perform, but there are also inanimate objects that are contestants in matches as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_Dream_Team
http://www.ddtpro.com/

At one point a folding ladder was awarded the championship belt when it fell across the champion and a pin was counted.

Anyway, seeing a rubber squid wrestling made me think of this. Here's a couple matches to show you the fun.


One of the wrestlers in this bout is an inflatable love doll... and it looks a lot like Undertaker from WWE!



And this one was really funny to be when I saw it the first time. One of the wrestlers here is INVISIBLE!

CALAMARI WRESTLER

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Original Title: Ika resuraa
Year: 2004
Director: Minoru Kawasaki
Writer: Minoru Kawasaki, Masakazu Migita
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0428662/
Genre: Comedy

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synopsis:
By the same director from Crab Goalkeeper and Executive Koala Minoru Kawasaki, this surreal plot revolves around a professional wrestler who, after developing cancer, becomes a giant squid-like creature. While he finds some success in the ring, he craves respect outside it.

Well, this review is a long time coming it seems. I haven't gotten off my ass in a week now. I know all of you were held over well with the Rikidozan matches I posted here, yeah? So instead of a tearful visit to an unloved blog, you instead get a tearful blurry match or two from the 1950s. So yay me!

So where was I? I'm getting distracted easily lately. Oh, yes, Calamari Wrestler.

What an oddball fucking movie this was. But never trying to be something it is not, it came across fairly well.

Here we have an obviously rubber suited squid (Osamu Nishimura) who may or may not be a strange reincarnation of a former national pro-wresting hero Kanichi Iwata, who steals a belt from another wrestler Koji Taguchi (Akira). Koji is being pushed by the wrestling promoters to be the next savior of professional wrestling in Japan... to bring it back to the forefront. But the squid wants a title shot and respect of the promoters as well as love of the fans.

Kana Ishida plays the love interest of the film. Yep, that's all she gets. She is that lame.

Osamu Nishimura is a pro-wrestler in reality, and I believe Akira must be also. The acting is goddamn hideous. But that's OK, we're not here for that.

We're not here for the direction and storytelling either I suppose. Although, the construction of the film is what keeps it from being a failure. Calamari Wrestler knows that it is a budget-restricted silly mess of a film. I have seen Japanese television programs better produced than this. But Minoru Kawasaki takes what little is is given here and creates a sarcastic, funny, and intentionally cheap production.

Kawasaki doesn't try to hide the fact that the squid is just a guy in a rubber suit. He doesn't try to hide the fact that the wrestling matches have no audience, as we get panned out shots of action figures falling over in a miniature ring surrounded by a stationary audience. Because of this, the stiff performances by essentially the entire cast in a way fit in to it all.

It's interesting that I came across this film to review when I did - I put it here because it is actually related to Rikidozan. There is a legendary man often referred to in the film as Godozan, who is obviously supposed to be Rikidozan. In Rikidozan, the Korean becomes a national hero by defeating Americans in the wrestling ring at a time when national pride in Japan was exceedingly low. In Calamari Wrestler, Kawasaki not only gives a thinly veiled critique of the economy and corporate climate of modern day Japan, but also humorously presents another outsider who's "destiny" in the ring becomes a matter of morale and pride in Japan as they are so low once again.

I could reveal some plot points foe the sake of a longer review, but honestly they aren't really worth it. The film broke down a little for me when they start explaining the origins of the squid and such. The love story that develops is good for some laughs, but that's about it. And the ending I can best describe as being very Japanese in its feel. See the film and you'll know what I mean here.

A review I read on Coffee, Coffee, and More Coffee had this to say that I thought was a nice point

Kawasaki's films are about outsiders whose sense of integrity is challenged establishment characters with greater financial or political power. A Kawasaski hero is incapable of compromise or being untruthful. Even if some of the more distinctly Japanese aspects of Kawasaki's films are not fully understood by western viewers, one has to love a film where the most unlikely protagonists achieve victory in spite of overwhelming odds.

Ultimately what we have plot-wise is nothing outstanding. But as I said, this is the sort of production where the director is obviously aware of his limitations and goes with it. For what it is, it is well done, and that's what made this entertaining.

A film with heart and a nice sense of self-awareness, Calamari Wrestler is worth a watch I would say. It is obviously nothing inspiring to me personally as it took a fucking week and a half to review it, but I'm glad I saw it. I'll definitely be tracking down more of Kawasaki's work.

Score: 6 / 10

RIKIDOZAN

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Original Title: Yeokdosan
Year: 2004
Director: Hae-sung Song
Writer: Hae-sung Song
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435931/
Genre: Drama, Sport Biography

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synopsis:
A chronicle of the life of Korean-born wrestler Rikidozan, who, after being barred from Japanese wrestling because of his ethnic origins, became a sensation in the United States in the 1950s and then the father or pro-wrestling and a national hero in Japan.

After my huge intro a couple days ago, I'll bet you were expecting Body Slam or something, yeah?

Well, I am using Foul King as a jumping off point into the world of pro-wrestling cinema and diving immediately into another Korean wrestling film, this one a serious drama. Serious dramas like Rikidozan, similarly to The Wrestler from 2008, are few and far between. This is due to the fact probably that pro-wrestling really isn't taken seriously (and probably rightfully so) by most people. Usually a serious wrestling story will be one of the shady underside of the sport, like the Wrestler.

But Rikidozan instead shows the fame that was built by a Korean wrestler in Japan and how be became a national hero. While it has its moments of tragedy, from Mitsuhiro Momota's humble beginnings as a sumo wrestler, to his struggles with alcohol and prescription abuse, to his death from a stabbing in a nightclub, the film also has the highs and glory that he experienced through his relatively short career.

This all was for me by far the most interesting aspect of the film. I never knew the details of Rikidozan's rise to fame. Really all I knew about him was that he was known as The Father of Puroresu (Japanese word for pro-wrestling), and that he died from being stabbed. Oh, and I never knew about the ties of early Japanese pro wrestling with the Yakuza!

And I call myself a fan of wrestling? Bah!

Rikidozan was to Japan what Santo was to Mexico or maybe Hulk Hogan was to the United States. Being Korean, he was heavily discriminated against, especially early on as a sumo trainee, and this makes it all the more impressive that he became the hero he did. At times the film implies that he possibly hid his nationality, but I'm not entirely sure how common the knowledge of his nationality actually was. The story is rather well told and straightforwardly presented, except for a love story that was presented between Riki and his wife Aya. But the overall tale of his rise to fame is the real meant and potatoes, and the driving force.

Japan felt trod upon by America after the Second World War, and Rikidozan being successful, particularly against American opponents, really helped to unify Japan and give them pride as a nation again. Maybe the point is over-exaggerated in the film, but you can really see how Riki's timing was key and why he became as huge as he did. The sport was not really known in the country, and through Rikidozan not only was pro-wrestling introduced, but also became very huge there with it catching on as television did also.

The other high point for me was the performance of Kyung-gu Sol as Rikidozan. I've not seen Sol before, but apparently he gained a lot of weight for the role, learned Japanese, and he appears to do all of his own stuntwork in the film. If it was not him taking the backdrops and chair shots, then director Hae-sung Song did a remarkable job masking it. At times he was a bit melodramatic, but I suspect that me just as much the fault of Song's directions as Sol's acting. He's got a great look, and does a really nice job in moments when he is going on his inebriated rampages, or confronting certain individuals in the film.

There are not any other stand out performances, and Sol is on screen a majority of the time, but fans of wrestling might get a kick out of seeing a wrestling appearance by Rick Steiner of The Steiner Brothers fame, and one by Keiji Mutoh, formerly The Great Muta, playing a brief role as Harold Sakata, the man who played Oddjob in Goldfinger!

There are some very nice shots in there from Song and his cinematographer Hyeon-gu Kim, but so much of the direction here is heavy handed and a little sappy. While Rikidozan's relationship with his wife Aya may have been important in reality, the focus on it at times may have you rolling your eyes. It was almost as if Song couldn't decide how important it was as it fades in and out of the story, and sometimes it seemed very awkward and unrealistic. I suppose it can be said that the focus on the marriage could give another human anchor to a man who became a legend, I just think it could have been handled much better. There are some scenes in there outside of the relationship scenes that had me huffing as well, but I suppose this was being made for a broad Japanese audience as a wide-release here would be handled as well.

Ugh, a fucking flowery bike ride? Really?

Another element, one that seemingly led to Rikidozan's early death, that wasn't properly covered in the film, was his developing paranoia due to his drug abuse. It is touched on from time to time by Song, but never presented properly I don't think. One minute he is fine, then the next he thinks someone is trying to kill him when a flower pot falls from a home and almost hits him.

I did really like the set pieces - the older buildings and dirt streets of pre and post-war Japan looked great.

I don't have much more to say about the film as it's the story that is 95% of what it is. If you do not know the story of Rikidozan or you do, this film is definitely worth seeing. I loved learning that Rikidozan's first televised match in Japan was the first Japanese TV broadcast, that Oddjob was the guy that got Riki into wrestling in the first place, Riki's strange ties to the Yakuza... and all of that.

Great stuff despite the flaws. The wrestling scenes are cool to see, but I just wish the dramatic elements weren't as corny at times as they were.

Score: 6.75 / 10