‘Sanctuary’: Bad boy of sumo’s journey doesn’t pack a punch

For all its centrality to Japanese culture, sumo wrestling doesn’t lend itself to screen adaptations. There’s an obvious physical requirement that precludes most actors from participating, at least without the aid of fat suits or a diet that would put Robert De Niro’s “Raging Bull” weight-gain regime to shame.

You could count on two chubby hands the number of Japanese movies that have been made about sumo, but now a couple of TV series have come along at once. “Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t,” released on Disney+ last autumn, played things safe with a reboot of Masayuki Suo’s 1992 comedy about amateur college wrestlers.

Now there’s “Sanctuary” on Netflix, which takes on the more ambitious task of depicting the sport at a professional level. Directed by Kan Eguchi (“The Fable”) and written by Tomoki Kanazawa (“Sabakan”), it boasts the superior production values you’d expect from the streamer’s Japanese originals, though it also shares some of the same shortcomings.

Lured by promises of status, women and money, juvenile delinquent Kiyoshi Oze (Wataru Ichinose) joins a once-great sumo stable that’s now teetering on the verge of bankruptcy and rife with institutionalized bullying. Stable master Ensho (Pierre Taki) hopes the new recruit can turn things around, but Kiyoshi’s obnoxious behavior both in and out of the ring suggests that pro-wrestling might have been a better career choice.

His only friend is a weedy novice, Shimizu (Shota Sometani), but he finds a reluctant admirer in Asuka Kunishima (Shioli Kutsuna), a former political journalist who’s been assigned to the sumo beat after some kerfuffle at work. Uptight and self-righteous, she’s as much of an outsider as he is, which we’re told is because she was raised overseas (I’m guessing 1980s Hollywood, based on how flimsily her character is written).

After some early tournament successes, Kiyoshi — or Enno, as he’s known in the ring — has to face a more formidable foe: a silent, scarred colossus named Shizuuchi (Hiroki Sumi). Meanwhile, Ensho clashes with an old adversary, Inushima (Matsuo Suzuki), who now pulls the strings within sumo’s governing body.

You can probably guess where this is heading, but “Sanctuary” takes a long time to get there and has an unpleasantly sour tone that makes it difficult to stay the course. Much of the first four episodes are spent wallowing in Kiyoshi’s boorish antics, which are both tiresome and strangely half-hearted. Ichinose has the right physique and coarse charisma for the role, but at 37, he makes for an unconvincing teen rebel.

When its protagonist finally starts taking the sport seriously, “Sanctuary” gets more engaging. However, the later episodes feel rushed and the season finale is frustratingly truncated. Multiple subplots are abandoned as the show pivots to a more conventional (and sentimental) underdog narrative. Likewise, Asuka abandons the hard-hitting expose she’d planned to write in favor of a gushing paean.

With several former professional sumo wrestlers in the support cast, the training and tournament scenes have a satisfying thwack, including some slow-motion sequences that are painful to watch. The minutiae is often fascinating, from the arcane rituals to the sight of a wrestler mending a cracked heel with super glue. However, the overall arc of “Sanctuary” is more like an anticlimactic sumo bout. After a lot of huffing and puffing, it ends abruptly, with a dull thud.