Japanese films about female boxers are becoming more common and, as evidenced by the honors now being showered on Sho Miyake¡¯s boxing drama ¡°Small, Slow but Steady,¡± they¡¯re getting critical respect, if not yet mainstream box-office success.
But as Toshiro Saiga¡¯s pugilistic tearjerker ¡°Red Shoes¡± reminds us, a movie¡¯s worthy intentions to represent athletes in a once lightly regarded sport are no guarantee that it¡¯s going to be any good.
Perhaps comparisons with Miyake¡¯s far superior film aren¡¯t fair since Saiga¡¯s offering is targeted at a mass audience, not the critics in the Kinema Junpo magazine poll, who voted ¡°Small, Slow but Steady¡± the best Japanese film of 2022. Nonetheless, not all films made in Japan for the multiplexes are so blatant about pumping audience tears while plumping for hackneyed plot turns.
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