Tokyo Fist

Just caught Tokyo Fist at the CineWorld Film Festival -- a charming study in human nature by Shin'ya Tsukamoto, the director of Tetsuo II: Body Hammer. This is what you might call a study in cultural differences ...

Typical American boxing movie –

A man runs into a high school buddy who’s now a boxer. Like an idiot, he takes him home to meet his girlfriend. The boxer beats the crap out of his old friend and steals the man’s girlfriend. Humiliated, the man hangs out at the gym and learns to box like a pro. After months of grueling training, he challenges the boxer to a fight, beats him in the ring and gets the girl back. (Alternate ending; he doesn’t want her anymore. Alternate ending #2; she decides she’s sick of violence and leaves them both.)

Tokyo Fist –

A man runs into a high school buddy who’s now a boxer. Like an idiot, he takes him home to meet his girlfriend. The boxer beats the crap out of his old friend and steals the man’s girlfriend. Humiliated, the man hangs out at the gym and learns to box like a pro. After months of grueling training, he challenges the boxer to a fight. They beat each other to a bloody pulp in the ring—to the point their faces come apart at the seams. The boxer punches the man’s eye out of the socket and "wins." Nobody gets the girl. She’s developed a fetish for piercing and dies in an alley like a human pin cushion after sticking one rusty piece of metal through her body too many.