This brilliant film is one of the finest Japanese pictures of the year. Based on the autobiography of a young welterweight boxer who suffers brain damage, recovers, and returns to the ring, the role is played by the welterweight boxer himself who delivers an extraordinary performance. While it may sound like a formula movie (the original title Dotsuitaru nen translates into "power punch" or "the old one-two"), it is anything but. The film heads into unfamiliar territory and relationships: determination does not necessarily result in victory, and the old boxer-trainer relationship is unlike any other. There is no glory. And the victory, if one could call it that, is awarded by default. There is no love interest, no buddy-buddy business, no idealism, just a boxer who wants to make good. Actor/boxer Hidekazu Akai is astonishing as the true lout-rude, big-mouthed, utterly unself-conscious, and very tough. He would as soon hit you as look at you, and socially is the kind who leaves the door open when he takes a leak. He spits, farts, throws up, takes off his clothes without a thought, and doesn't seem to have much upstairs. Still, he reveals the loneliness of the big bruiser, a terrible vulnerability, seen in quietly amusing scenes when entertaining bargirls by putting out his cigarette on his tongue or sitting with his okama patron eating cake. We laugh and then we see the little boy hiding under all of this. Akai is all animal strength and human longing. A talented and brave team, director Sakamoto is an already assured stylist, and producer Arato (Ziguenerweisen by Seijun Suzuki) a man who knows good cinema. --Donald Richie