Sumo Movie [better] (Exclusive - 2024)

There’s a blooper reel showing the actors attempting to cook chanko-nabe for real. It’s funnier than half the film’s actual script.

Viewers allergic to training montages, or those hoping for a violent Shogun -style bloodbath. This is a gentle giant of a film. sumo movie

Director: Masayuki Kurosawa (fictionalized for this review) Starring: Ryohei Otani, Ken Watanabe, Mieko Harada Genre: Sports Comedy / Drama Runtime: 118 minutes There’s a blooper reel showing the actors attempting

In the vast landscape of sports films, we’ve seen every boxing comeback and every baseball season finale. Rarely, however, does cinema venture into the clay ring of the dohyo . Sumo Movie (released internationally on Netflix and in select theaters) does exactly that, delivering a surprisingly tender, funny, and genuinely gripping portrait of Japan’s ancient sport. While it occasionally stumbles under the weight of its own clichés, the film’s massive heart—much like its protagonists—ultimately wins the match. We meet Kenji (Ryohei Otani), a slacker in his late twenties working a dead-end job at a Tokyo convenience store. He’s overweight, aimless, and deep in debt to a local loan shark. After a humiliating eviction, he stumbles drunkenly past a sumo stable ( heya ) and is spotted by Master Takanoyama (a stoic Ken Watanabe), a legendary former yokozuna (grand champion). This is a gentle giant of a film

Sumo Movie doesn’t reinvent the ring, but it dominates it with grace, humor, and a whole lot of chanko-nabe . Go for the body slams; stay for the quiet moment where a broken man finally bows to his master with genuine respect.

Seeing not just Kenji’s bulk but a flicker of desperate fire, the master offers him an ultimatum: join the stable, live under brutal discipline, and train to become a professional sumo wrestler—or be turned over to the police for a petty theft Kenji just committed. Reluctantly, Kenji enters a world of 5:00 AM wake-up calls, endless chanko-nabe stews, and thigh-crushing leg stomps. Where Sumo Movie excels is in its authentic, almost documentary-like depiction of the sport. Director Kurosawa (no relation to Akira) spends real time on the rituals: the salt purification, the squatting stance, the terrifying charge known as tachi-ai . You will learn why sumo wrestlers can’t drive cars and why the topknot is sacred.

The training montages are refreshingly anti-glamorous. Instead of pumping rock music, we hear the grunts, the slap of flesh, and the heavy breathing of men pushing a 400-pound wrestler into a sand pit. Otani, who reportedly gained 60 pounds for the role, is a revelation. He plays Kenji with a perfect mix of shame and stubborn pride. His transformation from a whiny millennial into a focused athlete feels earned, not magical.