Tokyo Fist

Plot synopsis:
The film tells about a Japanese door-to-door insurance salesman, Tsuda Yoshiharu, who takes up boxing after some chance meetings with a former high school friend, Kojima Yakuji. Tsuda lives a more or less uneventful life. He has a fiance, Hizuru, who one day invites Kojima in to Tsuda's apartment. Kojima comes onto Hizuru, who rejects him. Still, Tsuda finds out and gets enraged at Kojima, but Kojima beats Tsuda to a pulp and humiliates him to the point where it strains his relationship with Hizuru. Hizuru is intrigued by the animalistic Kojima, and ends up moving in with him. She also starts to pierce herself and get tattoos. She wants to box, but is denied that life by the surprisingly cowardly Kojima, who says she is a scary freak of a woman.
Tsuda still has feelings for Hizuru, and he keeps trying to win her back, leading to a confrontation where they bond by beating each other's faces to a pulp (Tsuda is quite mutilated in the process). In the end, Kojima and Tsuda end up in a sparring match in their boxing club, which leads to Tsuda getting beaten again, while Kojima goes on to win a real match, with no regard to his own well-being, afterwards. Kojima wins the match, but both he and Tsuda's faces begin to break apart and bleed profusely, suggesting fatal wounds.

Tags: violence, cult, insanity, psychedelic, revenge, sadist

Review:
Watching a movie by Shinya Tsukamoto is a bit like staring into the deepest pits of hell, or the darkest recesses of the male psyche, whichever way you want to put it.
But then the two seem fairly synonymous, at least if the sheer visceral anger in Tokyo Fist is anything to go by.Those aware of Tsukamoto's feature-length debut Tetsuo (1988) will be familiar with the basic premise in Tokyo Fist; flawed relationship between man and woman is brutally disrupted by an outside element which challenges the protagonist to a potentially lethal, and eventually soul-destroying, duel.
Just to give you an idea, if a face almost literally falling off after a boxing match is too much for you, it's probably best to stay away from this film.However, the brutal imagery is not completely pointless.
Tokyo Fist portrays male anger with such honesty that it is sometimes painful to watch, but that's really the point since violence is not something to be cooed at or to be admired (which is what many Hollywood movies seemingly aim to achieve, witness the way audiences are prompted to cheer for the good guy as he murders the baddie).
it stands for something else than just simply fists flying: the inability between men and women (and, indeed, men and men) to understand each other ultimately leads to the kind of extreme violence we see on screen.
This, ironically, makes Tokyo Fist a part of the great humanist tradition in Japanese cinema, alongside Rashomon and other such movies, because, even though it uses extreme imagery to make a point, it makes the same point all the same: if we relish in jealousy, revenge and anger we will only end up destroying each other, and ultimately ourselves.
Does Hollywood ever deal with violence this eloquently?Also, as with Tetsuo, the characters in Tokyo Fist seem to live entirely in a world of their own.
I can't think of another film-maker who sums up urban alienation as brilliantly as Tsukamoto does; the sheer contradiction of city life, in which a great mass of people are all huddled together at close range, and yet find themselves completely lonely and alienated from one another.For all intents and purposes, Tokyo Fist is a movie which requires a strong stomach and an open mind.
Japanese film maker genius and multi-talent Shinya Tsukamoto's Tokyo Fist (Tokyo-ken, 1995) is as stunning and incredible experience as can be expected after seeing his two Tetsuo films in which a human body and metal (machine) became one with a horrific results.
Tokyo Fist is not any exception.Director himself plays Tsuda, a nerdish Japanese insurance salesman who has a beautiful girlfriend Hizuru (Kahori Fujii) whom with he lives seemingly peacefully and in love.
Soon his high school time friend Kojima arrives (played by the director's brother, Kôji Tsukamoto) and he is a professional boxer and very fierce one.
When he starts to be interested in Tsuda's girl, all physical and mental hell breaks loose as Tsuda gets an obsession to start to box himself, too, and Hizuru starts to have some very severe habits of body piercing and self mutilation.
The fists, the punches and the mayhem is always aimed straight to the camera, the viewer and audience, so the viewer will be on the edge of the seat for the whole time, and it all is of course at its most powerful when seen on the big screen.
Tsukamoto has the talent to hammer and force his things to the skull and spinal cord of the viewer and he does it all with the magic of editing and cinematography, and definitely not least of Chu Ishikawa's pounding and merciless soundtrack which is here as effective and wonderful as in Tetsuo.The visuals are impressive and every twisted camera angle has its purpose and meaning as well as every bit of mist and darkness that is shed during the ride.
The effect when he shakes his camera is something truly unique and definitely much more powerful way to depict the feelings and mental states of the characters than any dialogue ever could.
Tetsuo is another great example of this and its black and white scenery is no less powerful than the colors in Tokyo Fist.
Tokyo Fist is extremely menacing as there hardly are any peaceful moments and there's all the time some element there to make it clear that it is not peaceful even though it may look like it.The film's theme is about human nature and its jealous and weak sides as the characters can't live without taking or producing physical pain.
The film is also a good example for those who think that in Japanese cinema females are often on the background and weaker than men as the lead female in Tokyo Fist practically (and quite passively!) makes, at first so powerful and dominating, Kojima as her submissive slave.
The film begins as in our familiar world in modern day Japan but it is not so long before Tsukamoto gives us the first glimpses of his surreal visions that are taken at their extremes in the incredible blood soaked nightmare finale "in the ring", a finale that is so fierce, kinetic and merciless piece of film making it just makes me appreciate and love Japanese cinema even more with its many sides never or very rarely paralleled in other world cinema.
The gore and violence is sudden and almost unbearably shocking at times but the blood geysirs are not realistic nor they're meant to be; they are from the film's own world and as symbolic and surreal as in the Japanese samurai classic The Baby Cart aka Lone Wolf & Cub series in the early seventies, the first two parts of that series edited also into one feature film as Shogun Assassin (1980).
Still none of these films manages to give the kind of impact in their violence or any other element than Tokyo Fist, but the surreal depiction of physical violence is pretty similar with Tsukamoto and The Baby Cart pieces.Perhaps only negative point I can find in Tokyo Fist is that some of the characters seem to develop a little too fast and they should have been little more motivated and restrained.
For example, Tsuda seems to be completely mad already and is capable to rape his girlfriend any time so these kind of things should be explained little more carefully in order to make the piece perfect and the characters more real.
Still the characters are very good and the message and theme gets delivered very effectively through their acts and there's absolutely no question that the visual magic and impact of Tsukamoto's deserves nothing less than praising and moments of pure amazement.Shinya Tsukamoto is the kind of Master of Cinema that he really deserves his name in the thanks section of the end credits of every young film maker's film who has got inspiration from his work.
His films have the ability to make people faint, shock, turn the head off the screen and stun in their power and it all is done practically by himself as he works as an editor, cinematographer, art director etc.
Tokyo Fist is among the most fierce, angry and honest rides of cinema I've ever experienced and everytime I see something from its maker, I cannot help but feel confused and amazed in front of Japan and its invaluable gifts during the centuries to the world of cinema.9/10.
Some of my favourite cinema does that, and I'm always on the lookout for movies that call us to live through a certain experience, to vicariously sense the world as another person might.
The ultimate joy is for me to be able to take out something that matters, an otherwise impossible view of the world in my livingroom that makes sense.The problem of Tokyo Fist is that it's packed with so much rage and annihilation yet aims it nowhere.
Senseless is an apt word here, for in Tokyo Fist the mind doesn't matter, and the human body is something to be destroyed, the senses torn from it and thrown in a bloody heap on a grimy floor.
I lament this because few directors dare make films like his, even Tsukamoto himself doesn't seem able to make them anymore.Fits of jealousy, miserable love triangles, personality changes, all these are trifle story points.
The resulting New Wave of his cinema is a New Wave of disillusionment turned against itself, a shell without a solid core to make it dream a better society.In this light, it makes sense to see Tsukamoto playing a young employee, fresh out of high school and already into a suit and a tie running errands for a faceless corporation, turning into a crazed animal for whom even love is a petulant obsession, another passing need to be consummated..
I've seen Tsukamoto's Tetsuo films but here he has found a way to be almost as outre but infinitely more accessible and coherent.
The film is about 3 people (two men and a woman caught in a triangle) whose lives suddenly become charged with transformative psychosexual and psychoviolent energies revolving around the world of Japanese boxing (but it is nothing like a 'fight' film).
Actor/Editor/Cinematographer/Director Tsukamoto has found a way to give a high impact, extremely rhythmic (in both time and space) look and feel to his ideas that is very original and striking.
lots of cameras shaking up and down and blood spouting from peoples heads does not a good movie make.
So here I go, helping it out with this 22nd review, if I recall it correctly...First time I read a review on Tokyo Fist on another site, I didn't quite know what to expect from this movie.
Tsukamoto's cam angles and effects act perfectly coherently with his intent, from emphasizing the ridiculous monotony and isolation in Tsuda's life to highlighting the irrational ferocity of his old "friend" that almost seems to turn night into day and day into night.Now, diving a bit into the predictable Fight Club comparison, Tokyo Fist is the severe, restrained, Eastern cousin of Palahniuk's novel's adaptation.
Beyond the plot, there are some really nice hyperkinetic boxing scenes in this movie, and the generous to parodic flows of blood and bruises might seem chuckle and nausea-inducing at the same time.I am afraid, though, that what I have said doesn't give this film the aura that it deserves.
In this film anger, violence, pain and revenge drive the action.Tsuda and Kojima witness the murder of a girl they like and while both vow to find and punish the killers only Kojima holds on to the twisted dream to become a second rate boxer.
Fast editing, powerful sound effects and blue colours mark the film out as Tsukamoto's style, and the transformation theme is another element that he returns to.
It could be a great movie if it had developed better the main character's ordinary life as a white collar, the chaos of the city (the story does not explore the interesting way the town is shown), the dangerous boxer who tattooes the number of defeated challengers on his shoulder.
'Tokyo Fist', while not directly related to the 'Tetsuo' films, takes many of their elements, themes and hyperkinetic style, sets it in a more recognizable and relatively normal setting, and pulls off one of the most powerful and confronting movies you'll ever see.The basic plot of a love triangle set against the background of explicit and life-altering violence cannot fail to remind the viewer of 'Fight Club'.
To my mind 'Tokyo Fist' is a much more original, morally ambiguous and complex film than that overrated piece of MTV nihilism.
It certainly was a powerful film and the self destructiveness and brooding anger of the three central characters was certainly frightening yet moving at the same time.I still wonder what the ending meant though, but I am tempted to interpret the parallel between the lead characters as an expression of some sort of common pent up repression of Japanese society.
Tokyo Fist is the second movie directed by Shin'ya Tsukamoto after i witnessing the outrageous and probably one of my all time favorite body horror movie Tetsuo the Iron Man.Labeled as one of Tsukamoto best work Tokyo Fist is a huge let down for me.Of course the soundtrack composed by Chu Ishikawa is awesome with many intense fast editing montage full of ultra-violence but beside all that the plot is very dull.The relationship between three main characters don't make any sense to me and if there is a deep meaning behind this movie it just hidden too well or because I'm a blockhead.
people compare this to raging bull I don't see any comparison other than it being a boxing film.
The film it self has a basic plot of man is stalked by old friend, old friend steals girl, man goes crazy and decides to learn boxing.
I would also like to state that I hate boxing movies but I would recommend this film to everyone its fast paced and never gets dull also has that old grimy scan line look about it and some not bad cinematography so if your fan of the director and tempted to miss it due to the subject matter don't make that mistake..
From, say, GENTLEMAN JIM, THE HARDER THEY FALL, REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT (both versions), THE GREAT WHITE HOPE and FAT CITY to, say, HARD TIMES, ROCKY, THE GREATEST, RAGING BULL, and ALI, The Sweet Science has been used to examine The Human Condition, up close and personal; subtext is thrust to the forefront, and boxing as drama is as clear and as pure as it comes.
Too bad the most exciting aspect to Tokyo Fist was the box art.The movie's interesting plot was a whole love triangle between a boxer, his friend, and the friend's wife.
People call it a masterpiece, but I am wondering if I rented the same movie that I did.The only way you can truly judge this film is watching it yourself.
The comments of others comparing this movie to Raging Bull, Rocky and Fight Club could be misguided.
Now I have seen the third of three of his films which has been released on video in the United States: Tokyo Fist.In plot, it is little different than Rocky.
For people who are interested in Japanese culture and the Japanese way of thinking, movies are a good opportunity to learn about both.
I suggest that you already have a certain knowledge about Japan and are accustomed to Eastern style sex and violence in movies before you see "Tokyo Fist".
The plot reminds me a lot of the "Atrocity" series as well, (ie, witnessing violence early in life leads young men to violent means later.).
Compared to other films about the theme of boxing it is closer to RAGING BULL than ROCKY!
Tokyo Fist is instead a brilliant subversion of typical boxing movie clichés, offering a bleak, cynical and hyper- violent view of the sport in trademark Tsukamoto fashion - the gradual mental (and physical) disintegration of the main characters is in direct proportion to the total number of pints lost.
But much like Tetsuo: The Iron Man, the main attraction of Tokyo Fist lies in its imagery rather than its storytelling (which is fairly basic stuff, at the end of the day).
Tsukamoto shows a lot of maturity and confidence in his direction and cinematography since Tetsuo too - General chaos and rapid camera movements is still the main course of the day, but there are a lot more creative photography and great lighting on display throughout the entire movie.
The overall look is very manga-like but the acting, camerawork, and story is on a totally different cinematic level than the primitive Tetsuo films.
In "Tokyo Fist" the director works in a totally organic arena with a compelling Nietzchean theme.
Coming a year apart - much like your mother's sex life - both made Tokyo-based films centred around boxing: 'Tokyo Fist' (1995) and 'Kids Return' (1996), both bringing their own unique flair to the art form.
To start, the films are very similar: 'Tokyo Fist' starts with salaryman Tsuda bumping into an old school friend, Kojima, a part-time boxer.
Likewise, 'Kids Return' begins with former best friends from school, Masaru and Shinji, happily bumping into each other on a Tokyo street, both recognising that their lives have taken a downward spiral since they last saw each other.
'Tokyo Fist' is very much along the lines of Tsukamoto's most famous work: 'Tetsuo: Ironman'.
The film then becomes a loud, brash experience, with fast camera movements, editing and thrashing music, leaving the viewer out of breath just watching it.
Rage, obsession, and fetish are themes running throughout Tsukamoto's works, and 'Tokyo Fist' is no exception, working as a more polished version of 'Tetsuo: Ironman'.
Punch, punch, punch is the style for the boxing scenes, with Tsukamoto creating a work to seep into your mind and punch your brain into dazed confusion.But where Tsukamoto chooses to show graphic violence and gore, this is the very thing that Kitano often avoids.
Since starting with 'Violent Cop', the violence is Kitano's films is more in the mind than on screen.
'Tokyo Fist' goes down the Stallone-form of boxing with non-stop punch fests that would lead to permanent brain damage in seconds, but with blood spurting out of eye sockets, this is the only way Tsukamoto of the Nineties would work.
Both made in the mid-Nineties, set in Tokyo and with boxing as a key element, the films are very different.
At a time when two former boxing film legends return for the undoubtedly terrible 'Grudge Match', 'Tokyo Fist' and 'Kids Return' are both blasts from the past that fall under the same weight class, but see a clash of styles..
A Japanese boxing film.
And many things were repeated constantly; like the meat on the camera.I found the film interesting, but not compelling.This film related in now way to Fight Club.