So Close To The Perfect Martial Arts Film, Yet So Far From Achieving It.

Could easily have been a 5 star film, and some may think it is. But sadly, while it is another visually beautiful film from Japan, it lacks actual substance and meaning. Even worse, it perpetuates misconceptions about the martial arts.

Starts out with the basic "good karate vs. bad karate" theme which we've seen forever, long before Mr. Miyagi taught the true meaning to Daniel and the Cobra Kai dojo. We have the student rivalry (even though one student is not an active participant) to the legacy of their sensei and his coveted black belt.

This is made more frustrating by his peculiar teachings such as "you must never strike your opponent", " you must not kick your opponent", "you should only intercept his attacks" and the like. This is obviously a distortion of the Funakoshi precept "There is no first strike in karate", which is already badly misunderstood by many. The teachings in this film only make such notions even more convoluted in order to give them some kind of "jedi" mystique and suggest the attainment of a higher spiritual level.

But really Funakoshi was simply saying "Karate begins and ends with courtesy" in another way and "There is no first strike in karate" simply means true karateka don't start fights. It was never meant to suggest you stand there like a punching bag and let bad people kick and punch you as you valiantly try to defend yourself with blocks and evasive movements only. But this starts the journey of Giryu who attempts to master "the art of fighting...without fighting" (double reference there for those paying attention). Giryu then attempts to go through life doing the right thing while never asserting himself in any way and as a result fails to accomplish anything noteworthy or even noble.

Then we have the other student Taikan, who seems to have learned nothing from his teacher and from the start of the film violates the stated "core teachings" of the dojo. We have to wonder how such a needlessly aggressive student was tolerated, let alone instructed to a senior level by such an "enlightened sensei" in the first place. In a very real sense, the revered Eiken sensei created a monster by instructing him to such a high level despite his obvious predisposition for violence. When Taikan killed on the the members of the military police it didn't seem to come as much of a surprise to anyone. This should have reflected directly on Eiken sensei and his failure to screen students or properly cultivate them. Again, these are basic concepts of the martial arts that Japanese films of the 50s and 60s would never have missed.

Then you have the third student, Choei who is so poorly trained he walks up to an armed man during a confrontation and is immediately maimed. Again, this should have reflected directly on Eiken sensei but instead we are supposed to revere him as a kenshi like a departed Obi Wan Kenobi. Choei is charged with deciding who should inherit the Eiken black belt, which is absurd because even Mr. Miyagi knew "karate is not around your waist" and Japanese martial art films seem to have forgotten that little nugget of wisdom. Personal effects of a sensei may be enshrined (especially in dojo with a kamiza) but they are not some kind of menkyo kaiden and any yudansha worthy of the grade wears his own obi which shows the amount of work "he" has invested into his training. I can't imagine anyone who would actually wear their teachers belt for any reason, at best it borders on disrespectful.

Choei is also seemingly devoid of any true character developed by years of training. He see's Taikan abandon all he was taught and engage in brutality and yet ye never admonishes him in any real way, he never abandons him as he should. As "caretaker" of an item belonging to sensei, Choei should have simply gone his own way, as there was no suitable successor for the belt. If you have two candidates for an "honor" and one is a murderer and the other a rapist, do you really try to determine which is worse and give it to the other guy?

I won't spoil the ending, but it's hardly difficult to see coming. Taikan has a moment of revelation that ultimately proves valueless. His entire existence wasted in the final conclusion, it's too bad he didn't find a good martial arts teacher and devote himself to that effort to avoid such a fate. Giryu apparently learns the true "spirit" of karate by...well violating the main teaching of his sensei. So he is either a complete failure regarding everything he was taught and held valuable, or Eiken sensei was "at best" a very inefficient teacher who taught his students very little that was useful and left it up to them to discover the true meaning. Choei then decides who deserves the belt, and the decision is then almost immediately overruled. So the entire purpose of Choei as caretaker and judge is in the end...meaningless. Obviously Eiken sensei was a poor judge of character when he assigned Choei this single task.

Again, this could have been one of the greatest martial arts films ever. The depiction of technique, especially kata, is almost flawless. Some of the fighting applications are presented in a more than favorable way, but that is hardly anything new and honestly it's as close as you can probably get for showing real world applications of Japanese Goju because it was so stylized when it was modified from the Okinawan version.

Another high point was the Japanese finally coming to terms with some of their less honorable actions during the Pacific War, this is a bit refreshing. They stopped short of implicating the military specifically and the "military police" became the defacto "bad guys" but it's a step towards honesty.