Tokyo festival opens with grueling boxing 'Underdog' film

This undated combination image of photos provided by 2020 UNDERDOG FILM PARTNERS shows Takumi Kitamura, from left, Mirai Moriyama and Ryo Katsuji, in the movie sets of “Underdog,” directed by Masaharu Take. Take's films have always focused on painful stories about Japan’s"under-class," people who are often overlooked in a nation stereotyped as monolithically well-to-do. “Underdog” opens the Tokyo International Film Festival, which starts Saturday, Oct. 31, 2020.

“I feel an adoration for those boxers, their strength, the courage that they have, that I don't have, and that's what I've been imagining and thinking about.” Take returns to the boxing theme with a vengeance with “Underdog,” a grueling work telling not just one but three stories of boxers over nearly five hours.

The three protagonists' gut-wrenching tales of struggle and emotional loss drive the plot, and the fights in the ring work like cathartic celebrations of Take's filmmaking. The men are all born losers, despite their championship dreams. But the film shows defeat sometimes can be glorious. Fukada says independent Japanese filmmakers have a hard time, even those collecting accolades abroad. Japanese government support for films is minimal, he said, a fraction of the funding in South Korea or France. Theaters in Japan are controlled by major studios looking for blockbusters. In contrast, South Korea and France pool a portion of ticket sales to support independent filmmaking.

Take acknowledged “The Naked Director,” whose hero makes pornography films, has been slammed as misogynist but he defended the work as “a challenge” to raise questions.

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