02-04-2025, 12:05 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-04-2025, 12:05 AM by Drunk Monk.)
This has been on my list forever and I finally got around to it. It's a Korean karate movie. But hear me out, it's about Mas Oyama, the founder of Kyokushin Karate, who was originally Choi Yeong-eui, a Korean. The film is largely historical fiction, imagining a poverty-stricken post-war refugee life, but it's beautifully shot and the tragic story has a romance angle that works well. It's an underdog tale, depicting Oyama's downtrodden roots and how he was inspired by Musashi's Book of Five Rings to challenge every master (this is based on a manga of Oyama's history so I'm not sure that's true).
Choi gets stabbed a lot with katanas. Like a lot. Way too much considering the kind of medical treatment that was available back then. He's played by Yang Dong-geun, who is a hip hop rapper and breakdancer so he can move but as far as I can tell, he's not a martial artist. The fights are shot artfully and that hides a lot.
Masaya Kato plays the villain named Kato, and he has a martial arts background (that's now a key point for this Karate article I'm writing). I can't dig up if he's a genuine karate man - just that he's into martial arts particularly sword and boxing.
It's a decent karate film tho. D00M worthy. Seen on Hoopla.
Choi gets stabbed a lot with katanas. Like a lot. Way too much considering the kind of medical treatment that was available back then. He's played by Yang Dong-geun, who is a hip hop rapper and breakdancer so he can move but as far as I can tell, he's not a martial artist. The fights are shot artfully and that hides a lot.
Masaya Kato plays the villain named Kato, and he has a martial arts background (that's now a key point for this Karate article I'm writing). I can't dig up if he's a genuine karate man - just that he's into martial arts particularly sword and boxing.
It's a decent karate film tho. D00M worthy. Seen on Hoopla.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse