Fighter in the Wind
This film is a biographical dramatisation of the incredible life of Kyokushin founder Masutatsu Oyama. For the first part of the film, he is referred to using his Korean name Choi Bae-Dal, and then it switches to his better-known name later on.
As a Korean Teenager,during World War II, Oyama decides to join the Japanese army with dreams of becoming a fighter pilot. However Japan, who had control of Korea at the time, did not view the Koreans very highly and assigned them to kamikaze pilot missions. Talk about a dead-end career path!
Oyama refuses, as do a few other Koreans, and after being tied up to be shot, he has his chance to fight a general hand-to-hand for his life (this general is also the chief of the Japan karate association “JKA”). After a crushing defeat (and when I say crushing I mean crushing!), Oyama and his friend manage to survive to live in post-war Japan as civilians, where he suffers another humiliating defeat. So when he reunites with his old fighting teacher and friend Beom-su, you can pretty much see what he wants to do.
At the start of his training, Oyama is given Musashi Miyamoto's ‘The Book of Five Rings’ (still a must read for any serious martial artist), which winds up to be a direct allusion to his life soon thereafter. Oyama trains, seeking incessantly to be the strongest fighter in the world, and ends up being called a modern day Miyamoto. He travels up into the wilderness where he trains for a very long period of time (years) with no company or civilisation; all he can do is train... and boy does he train! Some of the stuff he does to train his body are amazing. After he feels he is strong enough, he decides to go and test his strength on actual people instead of training aids… so, as any old school martial artist would do… he walks into the nearest dojo and challenges the lot of em! He then travels all of Japan claiming he will fight any strong man. For me these scenes were the best ones of all… he pretty much fights every single Japanese martial arts style you can think of… what a guy! I don't know if this is an accurate depiction of Oyama's life, but it certainly isn't a flattering one. Although he defeated the world's greatest fighters, he was a man who constantly felt weak and afraid, and he was driven by overwhelming inner demons. The way this film portrays it, he was a man teetering on the brink of insanity for most of the time!
This is a two hour film, and the first half formulaically shows the series of humiliations that made Oyama feel so impotent, and gave him the drive to become the man he became. The second half is still extremely formulaic, following the classic heroic mould of Oriental martial arts movies. Given that this is a true story, and there were so many well documented fights, it's extremely frustrating that almost none of them are shown in much detail, with the director preferring to portray most with a series of fast cut-scenes that give you no feel of the entire fight. For this reason, it' s impossible to tell if the film realistically shows the combat because you never see enough consecutive moves to make a judgement. This certainly gives the action more pace, but to a martial artist, it is also supremely frustrating.
Two of the most famous events in Oyama's life; where he goes to America and decimates all comers, and where he fights bulls and is almost killed by one, are not even mentioned in the main story (although you do see an artistic piece of him wrestling a bull as the final credits roll.
It's a pity that this man's incredble life has been manipulated and squeezed so that it fits the unimaginative template of Asian martial arts movies. It plays out like a Korean version of Hero, rather than a meaningful autobiography, and if I was one of Oyama's relatives, I would feel insulted by this version of his life.
I won’t tell you anymore about the film because I don’t want to ruin it for you all, but the strength, speed, power and on-screen presence of Keun's Oyama is incredible and this film is a must see for any martial artist.
When it comes to martial arts films I will only recommend the best to people and I must say… this is one of them.
Review by Todd Reeves
