Pro wrestling gets no respect, save from the fans who love watching it, and, as schoolboys, practice its moves. I was once one of those boys, trying out head butts (learned from Bobo Brazil) and karate chops (acquired from Rikidozan) on various victims, including my little brother.
Pro wrestling is also a popular theme for Japanese and other Asian filmmakers for box-office reasons. In Japan especially, the sport has long been a big draw with top performers from Rikidozan to Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba winning mainstream recognition.
"Gachi Boy," the second feature by 27-year-old Norihiro Koizumi, focuses not on the pros, but college kids who never got over their schoolboy (or schoolgirl) wrestling obsessions. So it's a fun, frothy, knockabout comedy, right? Not entirely. Based on a hit play first staged by the Modern Swimmers theater company in 2004, "Gachi Boy" is also a story of superhuman persistence in the face of unimaginable loss.