Rikidozan Goes Hollywood

[Captain Japan]

SCOPE: Rikidozan comes back to life in movie

(Kyodo) _ Looking out the window at a hospital where he later died, Rikidozan says, "I really want to lead a life with a smile on my face."

He was taken to the hospital after being stabbed by a man in a brawl in a Tokyo nightclub 41 years ago.

His life must have been full of frustrations and adversity, and thus he could not carry a smile on his face, even if some said his fame was next only to that of the Japanese emperor.

He was a Korean immigrant, but he did not disclose his ethnic origin.

Yokdosan, or Rikidozan in Japanese, who was known among many Korean professional wrestling fans just as a mentor of Kim Il, or Kintaro Oki, has come to life again in a South Korean-Japanese jointly produced film.

"Yokdosan" was released Dec. 15, the 41st anniversary of his death. The running time is 137 minutes.

South Korean actor Sul Kyung Gu plays Rikidozan and Japanese actress Miki Nakatani plays his wife.

Japanese actor Tatsuya Fuji plays Rikidozan's patron.

About 97 percent of the dialogue is in Japanese and South Korean actor Sul, who does not speak Japanese, said he tape-recorded a Japanese news announcer's reading of his lines and memorized them.

Sul gained about 28 kilograms to look more like the real Rikidozan and played the wrestling scenes himself.

The film dramatizes the life of Rikidozan, whose Korean name is Kim Shin Rak, and who became a wrestling hero in the 1950s and 1960s Japan.

See also:
Tokyo Underworld

[AssKissinger]

Damn. I almost missed this thread. That looks like a cool movie. I hope it gets a DVD release with English subtitles.

He must have been famous as Hell because I've heard of him and he died 41 years ago.

Born in 1923 in a small village in South Hamkyong Province of what is now North Korea, Rikidozan moved to Japan at age 17 and joined a sumo stable with hopes of becoming a sumo champion.

His peers treated him harshly for his ethnic origin. In one scene, he was being beaten up by a senior, who said, "What I hate most is to see a smiling Korean."

Interesting. Here's another link about this old school FG

http://www.wrestlingmuseum.com/pages/bios/halloffame/rikibio.html

Rikidozan (which translates into "rugged mountain road") was born Kim Sin-Nak on November 14, 1924 in North Korea. Because of the long history of discrimination by the Japanese against Koreans, Sin-Nak used the name Mitsuhiro Momota and claimed he hailed from Nagasaki. While growing up, he encountered that prejudice against Koreans often, and was known to have been quite bitter because of it. He kept his true identity a secret for his entire career, and his true nationality was not revealed until years after his death.

By beating American wrestler after American wrestler (who were portrayed as evil villians), Rikidozan helped win back some respect for Japan in the eyes of the Japanese people. In the process, he became a national hero. Rikidozan often expressed his contempt for American wrestlers, whom he saw as overweight cheaters, and he often claimed that they were "soft" compared with their Japanese counterparts. It might not have made him popular with American fans, but the Japanese loved him for standing up to the Americans.

here's another Link

Rikidozan did not seem the type who would want to die of a knife wound incurred in a drunken brawl. Death in the ring, the result of an illegal assault by a gaijin opponent, might have been tolerable.

The myth of Rikidozan as a "Japanese" ethnic hero, however, has finally begun to be viewed with considerable skepticism.

Rikidozan did his best to maintain his image as a "Japanese" ethnic hero (which he definitely was, although he had once been Korean). He was irritated whenever the media alluded to his Korean origins, as it did on the occasion of his January 1963 visit to the Korean peninsula. Some papers had reported this visit as "the first to his mother country in two decades," instead of simply saying that he had gone to play golf. But Rikidozan himself seemed to have found his "Japanese" mask too heavy to wear on this visit, during which he once said "Thank you" in Korean, when welcomed as a "Korean" hero by bouquet-bearing Korean girls. He then apologized that two decades of speaking only Japanese had left him unable to speak his mother tongue very well.

Seemingly off topic but from the same link

Japan is a strange country. It is a rule that Japanese nationals [Kokumin] must have a characteristically Japanese name [Nihonjin koyu no namae]. If I, Horvat [Horubaato], acquire Japanese citizenship, I would have to change my name to something like Horikawa, Horie, Horibata, or Horibato [as written in Chinese characters]. So long as I am Horvat, city hall will refuse to establish my domicile register.

In Hungary I was Horvat, and I was Horvat after moving to Canada. Only when becoming Japanese would I be forced to discard the name Horvat. In other words, the basis for preventing the assimilation of Japanese with other ethnic groups is clearly provided by law.

Lafcadio Hearn, in order to become Japanese, changed his name to the Japanese name Koizumi Yakumo. Persons with names like Pak or Kim, or with other names that convey non-Japanese ancestral origins, are not recognized as Japanese. Is there nothing that can be done about this?

There are blonde, blue-eyed people who like me are saying that if possible they would like to become Japanese. But we are told, "If that's how you feel, then take a name like Yamamoto."

Woah, check out this last quote

The term gaijin is almost always used to label "foreigners" on a racial rather than a legal basis. Thus, even Japanese may be called gaijin if they happen to be white, black, or racially mixed. In nonspecific contexts, however, the word tends to connote "white person" [hakujin] or "Westerner" [seiyojin]. In pejorative contexts, it closely resembles the English word "gook" [Oriental] in the sense that it is used as a sweeping racial label without reference to nationality and with derogatory connotations.

[Mulboyne]

AK and Captain Japan have already mentioned that baseball hero Oh is an FG but I was surprised to realize that Japanese baseball's "Iron Man" Sachio Kinugasa's father was African-American

[AssKissinger]

Kinugasa passed Lou Gehrig's consecutive-game record in 1987 (2,215 games to Gehrig's 2,130) and topped him in lifetime homers as well, 504-493. In 1996 Kinugasa's record streak was itself passed by Baltimore's Cal Ripken, Jr."

Breaking in with the doormat Hiroshima Carp in 1965, he teamed with college star Koji Yamamoto to lift the Carp to their first pennant in 1975. They won again in 1979 and 1980.

A "GI baby" (his father was black), Kinugasa played in Yamamoto's shadow, often taking practice swings in his hotel room until two A.M. It paid off in 1984, his twentieth season, when he hit .300 for the only time in his life, led in RBI, and won the MVP.

I hate when they act like something in the J-leagues 'tops' an MLB record.
I don't care how many games he played, he didn't top Lou Gehrig's record. Especially stupid is trying to say Oh surpassed Aaron. What a bunch of tards!

[dimwit]

I wondering whether the film is a whitewash -ignoring all his gangster connections, has volcanic temper, etc. From Whittings book, Rikidozen comes across as a thoroughly menacing character.

[Captain Japan]

I wondering whether the film is a whitewash -ignoring all his gangster connections, has volcanic temper, etc. From Whittings book, Rikidozen comes across as a thoroughly menacing character.

As well, the fact that the matches were fixed.

[Video-Link Japan]

As well, the fact that the matches were fixed.

No kidding..!!! Tokyo Underworld by Robert Whiting
was a Great Freaking Book.. must read for all FG's.

[AssKissinger]

As well, the fact that the matches were fixed.

No kidding..!!! Tokyo Underworld by Robert Whiting
was a Great Freaking Book.. must read for all FG's.

I just started You Gotta Have Wa yesterday and that stuff on Bob Horner was just fantastic. Growing up in Atlanta I remember that fat SOB moseying to first. YER OUT! He hated Japan so much he wouldn't stay even after they allowed him to skip practices and offered him 10 million dollars for three years (nearly quadruple his salary in the states)

[Mulboyne]

Movie Marketing: 'RIKIDOZAN' JAPAN RELEASE DELAYED

Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan (SPEJ) has decided to postpone the release of the Korean film Rikidozan from autumn this year to 2006. SPEJ quoted further editing and a rework of the mostly Japanese dialogue to adjust to modern Japanese audiences as the reasons for the delay. Of greater concern for SPEJ is obviously the potential clash with April Snow , a film starring Korean heartthrob Bae Yong-jun to be released in Japan in September. Bae is by far the most popular actor here...Rikidozan is the cinematic biography of Japan's most famous professional wrestler who was a Korean by origin, setting off a wrestling boom in postwar Japan. Directed by Song Hae-sung (Failan), produced by Sidus Pictures and CJ Entertainment, and with top star Sul Kyung-gu (Silmido, Oasis), pic was shot on numerous locations in Japan and features almost 100% Japanese dialogue, with all other main cast being Japanese. The film was a hit in Korea in Dec. last year, with over 1.6 million tickets sold.

Good pics and trailers on the film web site (the menu is Korean but it's easy to click around)

[Mulboyne]

Rikidozan vs. Lou Thesz - 1957