Cheap Tokyo Fist (DVD) (Shinya Tsukamoto) Price

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Customer Reviews of Tokyo Fist

IT AIN'T ROCKY!
Remember Fight Club with Brad Pitt? This is the Japanese version. A little grittier, less witty, and arguably more viceral, it evidently seeks to show what people are like behind the polite facade of everyday life. A small time salesmans' sterile life is interupted by the reunion of an old high school aquaintance who's now a professional boxer. When the boxer puts the moves on the salesmans fiancee, the salesman does an Edward Norton and becomes a pugilist. No doubt the arthouse crowd might like this film, but for those who live in the real world, don't expect a movie on fighting; it's about frustration and loosing control when emotions run amok. While not unwatchable, it's not exactly something you run out and buy afterwards, even if you like really abstract movies.

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Not comparable to Fight Club
I just want to mention that although this movie is extremely good it is compared to Fight Club far too much. Everyone says it's the Japanese Fight Club, but the only similarity is that there happens to be some fighting in both movies. You might as well compare the next Van Damme movie to Fight Club. But if you are a fan of Japanese films you won't be disappointed. It might not be as wicked as The Iron Man or Visitor Q, but it's still really good.

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Make sure you know who the creator is!
Thinking this was "just" a Japanese movie, I found Tokyo Fist anything but. Its raw unsubtle imagery -- not to mention over-the-top boxing "makeup", made me quite happy that I was watching this on an empty stomach. Yet, despite the human imagery of violence and spiraling downward, the sterility and facelessness of Tokyo itself is quite powerful -- more frightening, since it's the only part of the movie that doesn't seem impossible. The film is primarily shot in alienating, washed out blues, with red the primary visual for contrasting, jarring, color scenes. Sensibility and plot take a firm back seat to evocation and statement. It's kinetic, low-budget, and relentless, yet not at all preachy or pretentious.