Near the end of World War II, a young Korean Taekwondo competitor arrives in Japan where he wants to become a fighter pilot. But things does not work out and he ends up on the street where he fights for and against different kinds of things, like crime, occupying American servicemen and more. He also has to battle his own fear of failure as a martial artist. Later he retires from the world and goes to the wilderness to train his body and to improve his skills to later return to the world and challenge everyone willing to take him on.
Fighter in the Wind tells the story of Choi Baedal, a Korean who came to Japan looking for something, but instead had to suffer many hardships. The movie takes place near the end of World War II and being a Korean in Japan wasn't easy to say the least. The result of that Choi Baedal's martial arts teacher was killed by a local Yakuza made Choi take up karate and how to master it. He left civilization to train, and once he had completed his training, he returned to challenge all the dojos who wanted to fight him in order to become the best fighter in Japan.
Since this movie is a biographical of a real karate master it of course makes it more interesting considering that you know that what happens on-screen, also happened for real. I'm not sure exactly just how accurate everything is, but I guess this was the way it went down, otherwise what's the point of making a biography in the first place? Of course we probably don't get to see everything that actually happened to the guy, and a lot of things here might be much fancier as well. But since this is a movie and it's supposed to be entertaining while being interesting, so I guess it's all for the best.
Now this is not your normal Bruce Lee or Kung Fu movie with a lot of fights that are just entertaining. Of course there are a hell of a lot of fights since this is a movie about fighting, but there's also a lot of sentimentality and drama, and apart from that, it tells a really good story too. For a while the movie also deals a lot with the subject of racial discrimination and it's hard not to feel sorry for Choi as he has to suffer a lot of defeat and humiliation.
It's a simple concept, the guy goes through a hard time, his teacher is killed, and everything is more or less crap, but he manages to turn his life around and suddenly things start to improve..a lot. It's a typical thing when it comes to movies and after the bad comes the more so-called feel-good feeling, but it's needed here and works very well. Dong-kun Yang do a fine job portraying Choi Baedal, and while it's interesting and entertaining, it at times manages to be somewhat sad and dramatic as well, and so makes you take it more seriously.
The cinematography is beautiful and the choreography is at times awesome to look at. Some of the fights have slow motion in them, but never so much that it ruins them or that they feel too stylish. The score was kinda ok, but at one time when the guy was training we get to hear some crappy song by Finnish opera-metal band Nightwish and that felt kinda stupid. It was like one of those scenes from movies like Rocky 4 where we get to see them train before a fight that has no dialogue but instead some shitty music to lift things up. This movie's too good for that so it felt a little bad having to sit through that scene/song. But other than that it's a cool movie, and you can always fast-forward or hit the mute button.
Fighter in the Wind can be divided into three parts: One where Choi comes to Japan and has to suffer humiliation among other things. The second part when he trains himself to become a great fighter (in the wind), and the third when he travels around challenging different dojos and in the end where he has to fight his life-long enemy. But it has a bit more to it than that, and even if the story's somewhat simple it's still interesting and entertaining all the way through. Expect a lot of cool fights but also some very good drama and that makes it more than your average Kung Fu movie. Recommended.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Baramui Fighter
MOVIE YEAR: 2004
DIRECTOR: Yun-ho Yang
WRITING CREDITS: Hak-ki Bang, Yun-ho Yang
GENRE: Martial Arts, Biography, Drama, Action
CAST: Dong-kun Yang, Aya Hirayama, Tae-woo Jeong
COUNTRY: South Korea
RUNTIME: 120 min
RATING: 8/10
Fighter in the Wind Website/IMDB Click here
Fighter in the Wind Trailer Click here
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