Baramui Fighter / Fighter In The Wind (2004) - An interesting portrait of the hard life of the Korean minority in Japan after the Second World War - 7/10 (03/07/12)

"Baramui Fighter" is a very well done biopic of the Korean national hero Choi Bae Dal who was one of the best martial arts fighters in the whole world and who has gone through loads of hard times as being a part of the Korean minority in Japan that has been shattered by the Second World War and the following cruel occupation by American soldiers and the slow return to form of the country.

The movie surely idealizes a little bit too much the main character with this homage and the story reserves not many surprises. A poor Korean boxer gets in trouble with local authorities, isolates himself in the mountains after the tragic assassination of his idol and comes back to become the country's best fighter before he realizes that there are more important things than fighting for its own honour. The story includes some philosophic parts, a typical but very well played subtle love story and a load of breathtaking fighting scenes.

It's not only the solid acting or the very well done but not outstanding fighting scenes that make this movie quite entertaining but the authentic portrait of the hard life in Japan after the war. The scenes in the poor quarters of a big Japanese city including gang fights, conflicts with brutal local authorities and an emotional melting pot of honour, identity and passion that are questioned make this movie very addicting. Especially the first forty-five minutes or so of the movie are great to watch, the rest is your solid standard martial arts flick.

In the end, anybody interested in Japanese and Korean culture and history might highly adore this movie. Martial arts fan will also like this well done film. Those who like the more emotional and philosophic parts might give this movie some credits but might claim that it could have been more profound. This flick is clearly better than many recent Chinese and Japanese martial arts movies but it can't keep up with the classics of the genre.

Note that the very diversified soundtrack of the movie from tradition folk music to modern symphonic metal came as a positive surprise to me.