Baramui Fighter (2004)

Director:

Yun-ho Yang

Writers:

Hak-ki Bang (comic book)
Yun-ho Yang (writer)

Release Date:

6 August 2004 (South Korea)

Genre:

Action | Biography | Drama | History | War

Plot Keywords:

1930s | Japanese | Korea | Knife | Karate Kick

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Dong-kun Yang	...	Choi Bae-dal
Aya Hirayama	...	Yoko
Masaya Katô	...	Kato
Tae-woo Jeong	...	Chun-bae
Doo-hong Jung	...	Beom-su
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
David Joseph Anselmo	...	James's friend
Michael Frederick Arnold	...	Military Police
Han-garl Lee	...	Miwa
Seong-min Park	...	Ryoma

Also Known As:

Fighter in the Wind (International: English title)

Runtime:

South Korea:120 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Japanese | Korean

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Germany:16 | Malaysia:U | Singapore:PG | South Korea:12 | UK:15

Trivia:

This movie is based on the true life story of Choi Bae-dal (who later changed his name to Masutatsu Oyama), the founder of Kyokushin Karate. Choi was born in South Korea in 1923, immigrated to Japan in 1938, and founded the Kyokushin Karate organization in 1953. Currently, Kyokushin Karate is practiced by more than 12 million practitioners in over 120 countries around the world.

Quotes:

Chun-bae: Justice without power is empty and power without justice in only violence.

Movie Connections:

Version of Kyokuskin kenka karate burai ken (1977)

Formulaic, but fairly successful martial arts biopic

Fighter in the Wind is a Corea-produced martial arts biopic about Masutatsu Oyama (born Choi Baedal), the ethnically Corean founder of Kyokushin karate. I actually went into this film bracing for the worst kind of nationalism that I often expect from Corean film when dealing with Japan, but was pleasantly surprised at how subdued it was. In addition to some limited, but kinetic fight sequences, Fighter in the Wind ends up being a mostly satisfying, if limited, portrait of a prominent figure of the martial arts world.

The fictionalized story covers the early portion of Oyama's life in Japan. While history shows that Oyama had actually trained in two schools of karate before developing his own technique, I imagine that much of the actual of events of his life were elided for both running time as well as nationalistic purposes, in re-centering Oyama as a Corean (perhaps to appeal to the Corean movie-going populace). In addition to watching Baedal/Oyama get beat up, beat people up and become a total badass, we also watch him make friends with another ethnic Corean (the vice-ridden best friend), develop a relationship with a Japanese woman, get schooled by a Zainichi karate instructor/circus troupe guard, and spend a chunk of time brutally training in solitude in the mountains.

The film follows a rather unsurprising approach that you can find in many martial arts films, following the hero's journey as he starts from a scrapping fighter, who gets beaten, learns and trains with a master and learned to use his skills for good and not selfish ambition, is forced to fight to protect someone, beats the big bad in the end. Yeah, totally formulaic since this film mostly fits the basic formula, but like many films before it, it works. You see the growth of Baedal/Oyama's character, you see his victory from rather rough beginnings and how he changes the lives of those around him. Basic biopic/hero-film stuff. But it's pretty well executed, so although it's nothing that's going to amaze you, at the same time, the character remains interesting enough to keep your attention, like any biopic. Unfortunately, most of the Japanese villains are painted with a rather broad near-mustache-twirling brush, so if you're looking for complexity in your story-telling, you won't find it here.

The fight scenes, while not plentiful, are kinetic and hard hitting, especially the montage as Oyama takes on school after school of Japan's elite fighters. It's fun to watch the different martial arts interact and it's hard not to root for Oyama's practical underdog style. Photography is pretty good, adapting to the different dramatic material well, while still seeming cohesive and the film doesn't tank in terms of sonic presentation. The acting was overall good, although sometimes I felt like Yang Donggun, who played Oyama, had a rather limited character to work with, but he still seemed to embody that rather simple determination with his posture, even if I had a hard time believing that his body was one of a brutally effective fighter.

I still have some issues with the probably nationalistically motivated fictionalizations to Oyama's life and the rather obvious bad-guy characterizations of the antagonists, but in terms of an engaging biopic, Fighter in the Wind actually manages to make it out okay--if you like martial arts. It's no visionary work of art, but a rather modestly put together biopic that tells the story of a man whose determination and courage led to greatness. These things work for a reason and Fighter didn't screw it up, even if it did nothing astounding. Good for martial arts fans and probably passable for everyone else. 7/10.