Rikidōzan (film)

Rikidōzan
Movie poster
Hangul
역도산
Hanja
力道山
Revised RomanizationYeokdosan
McCune–ReischauerYŏkdosan
Directed bySong Hae-sung
Written bySong Hae-sung
Produced byKim Sun-ah
Haruo Umekawa
StarringSul Kyung-gu
Miki Nakatani
Tatsuya Fuji
Masato Hagiwara
Masakatsu Funaki
CinematographyKim Hyung-koo
Edited byPark Gok-ji
Music byLee Jae-jin
Release date
  • December 6, 2004 (2004-12-06)
Running time
137 minutes
CountriesSouth Korea
Japan
LanguagesJapanese
Korean

Rikidōzan (Korean: 역도산; RR: Yeokdosan) is a 2004 South Korean-Japanese film written and directed by Song Hae-sung.[1] The film is based on the life of Rikidōzan, a legendary ethnic Korean professional wrestler who became a national hero in Japan in the 1950s. It stars Sul Kyung-gu in the title role, with Miki Nakatani, Tatsuya Fuji, and actual Japanese wrestlers Keiji Mutoh and Masakatsu Funaki in the cast.

Cast

†denotes an actual professional wrestler

Reception

Sol Kyung-gu gained 20 kilograms (44 lbs.) for the role and also delivered 95% of his lines in Japanese.[2][3] Despite winning great praise for his performance, however, the film vastly underperformed in the box office on its local release, with total admissions at 1,249,794.[4]

Nevertheless, Rikidozan was recognized at the 42nd Grand Bell Awards, winning Best Director for Song Hae-sung, and Best Cinematography for Kim Hyung-koo.

References

  1. ^ Kim, Gab-sik (13 October 2004). "A Dialogue between Film Directors Song Hae-sung and Iwai Shunji". The Dong-A Ilbo. Retrieved 2013-07-16.
  2. ^ Lee, Seung-jae (1 December 2004). "I Reflected on Myself in Rikidozan". The Dong-A Ilbo. Retrieved 2013-07-16.
  3. ^ "Sul Kyung-gu Brings a Touch of Muscle to Wrestling Role". The Chosun Ilbo. 15 December 2004. Retrieved 2013-07-16.
  4. ^ "Commercial Releases in 2004: Ranked Box-Office Results". Koreanfilm.org. Archived from the original on 2023-05-11. Retrieved 2013-07-16.


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