Rikidōzan (film)
7.2 /10 1 Votes
Director Song Hae-sung Country South Korea
Japan | 7/10 IMDb Duration Language Japanese
Korean | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date December 6, 2004 (2004-12-06) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rikidōzan (Hangul: 역도산; RR: Yeokdosan) is a 2004 South Korean-Japanese film written and directed by Song Hae-sung. 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 Sol Kyung-gu in the titular role, with Miki Nakatani, Tatsuya Fuji, and actual Japanese wrestlers Keiji Mutoh and Masakatsu Funaki in the cast.
Contents
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. 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.
Nevertheless, Rikidozan was recognized at the 42nd Grand Bell Awards, winning Best Director for Song Hae-sung, and Best Cinematography for Kim Hyung-koo.