Fighter In The Wind (2004) - A Review

 

An underrated martial arts masterpiece.

Fighter In The Wind is a South Korean martial arts biopic/drama starring Yang Dong-geun, Jung Tae-woo, Aya Hirayama, Masaya Kato, and Jung Doo-hong. It was directed by Yang Yun-ho, with Jung Doo-hong in charge of fight choreography and stunts.

Fighter In The Wind is based on the real life martial artist Masutatsu Ōyama (known as Mas Oyama) and the manga that was written based on his life, Karate Baka Ichidai. Mas Oyama is the legendary martial arts master who founded Kyokushin karate, with many students, including Sonny Chiba and Etsuko Shihomi, who trained under him. The Street Fighter video game character of Ryu and the Art Of Fighting video game character of Mr. Karate are based on him. Mas Oyama was famous for being able to chop the horns off of bulls with his bare hands, among many other things.

Yang Dong-geun as Choi Bae-dal. Yang is amazing in this!

In Fighter In The Wind, Yang Dong-geun plays Choi Bae-dal, a young Korean man who wants to enlist in the Japanese air force to become a fighter pilot during World War II. On the way to sneaking into Japan he meets Chun-bae (played by Jung Tae-woo), a fellow Korean and con man. A few years later, Choi Bae-dal stands up to his commander, Kato (played by Masaya Kato), who has been abusing the Korean soldiers on his squad. Kato tells Bae-dal if he can defeat him with his 'inferior' martial arts style, he will release the Korean soldiers. Kato easily defeats Bae-dal, but the American air force attack the Japanese military base, which allows Bae-dal and the other Korean soldiers to escape.

Humiliated by the defeat, and never getting the chance to become a fighter pilot, Bae-dal ends up helping Chun-bae run a pachinko stall in a Japanese market. The Yakuza come looking for their protection money from Chun-bae, but Bae-dal stands up to them. The Yakuza end up humiliating Bae-dal as well, giving him an insulting nickname. Bum-soo (played by Jung Doo-hong) saves Bae-dal using some incredible martial arts! Bum-soo is a fellow Korean from Bae-dal's past. Bum-soo invites Bae-dal and Chun-bae to seek refuge at the circus, where many Koreans are working and saving up money to build something for their children. It is here that Bae-dal asks Bum-soo to teach him his style of martial arts. Bum-soo teaches him, and gives him a book by Miyamoto Musashi (the legendary Japanese swordsman, martial artist, writer, and artist), The Book Of Five Rings, which Bae-dal reads voraciously.

Choi Bae-dal goes through some harsh training to become the best fighter in Japan.

During this time, Bae-dal has become a rickshaw runner, and also saves Japanese women from being raped by American soldiers. He ends up saving a woman named Yoko (played by Aya Hirayama), who ends up becoming intrigued in him. Bae-dal also becomes awkwardly interested in Yoko...

Of course, the Yakuza kill someone important to Bae-dal, and when the Korean troop fight the Yakuza in revenge, Bae-dal is knocked out. After this, Bae-dal goes to the mountains to train in his martial art, and to train his body to take immense amounts of pain. He comes back to the city and challenges every top martial artist in Japan. Bae-dal, now known as Mas Oyama, becomes a media sensation. The Japanese Karate Association, in particular Kato (Bae-dal's former commander), is angry that a foreigner is beating the best Japanese martial artists. The Association send an assassin after Bae-dal, who is forced to defend himself. After this fight, Bae-dal vows to never fight again, and goes to the assassin's family to redeem himself. Eventually, Bae-dal returns to the city and finds out Kato has challenged him to a duel...

I remember first hearing about this movie on an Asian cinema message board I used to belong to in the early 2000s. A lot of people would say Fighter In The Wind was one of the best current (at the time) martial arts movies out there. For whatever reason, I didn't really look this movie up back then. I thought it was a remake of a 70s martial arts movie. I still did try to buy it back then, but it was always out of print or not available in my region. Close to twenty years later, I've finally watched it. It was worth the wait! This movie is so good. Even though it does follow the classic martial arts movie template, it goes a bit deeper into Bae-dal's motivations. He explains quite clearly why he needs to win. We see in his fights how he achieves his wins. Even though Bae-dal is a prodigious martial arts warrior, he is a human being as well. You feel for him, and root him on as he rises up from nothing to becoming a hero.

The fight scenes are powerful and hard-hitting.

The fight scenes in Fighter In The Wind are quick and hard-hitting. They show off the beauty and the power of traditional martial arts. The fight scenes are filmed really close up, so sometimes you literally don't get the full picture of what's going on. It is similar to Tsui Hark's The Blade or Wong Kar-wai's Ashes Of Time in that respect, but not to the extreme of those movies. There are some awesome kicks and throws Bae-dal does in his fights, for sure. The fight scenes show Bae-dal's mentality about martial arts and winning. Though the fight scenes are good, the best part of the movie is the story.

I highly recommend Fighter In The Wind. It is a very interesting and engaging martial arts biopic of a legendary martial artist. The story beats may seem familiar (it is very similar to Ip Man and Huo Yuanjia, also known as Jet Li's Fearless), but it is so well done and stands on its own. The acting is excellent, the fight scenes are exciting, and the movie is pretty inspiring. Check this movie out, it's amazing!

Reviewed by David Williams