Fighter in the Wind

I was impressed and satisfied with Fighter In The Wind. Most martial arts movies tend not to be very serious, but in terms of grit and realism, this was one of the few martial arts movies that maintained complete seriousness throughout.

Apparently, it is biographical of a real karate master, which I didn't realize until the end. It is also apparently based on a comic book version of the story, which in hindsight is easy to see in the colorful and visually well-arranged cinematography. Many different environments, landscapes and buildings are encountered in the course of the story, and they are all beautifully presented. The director is a master at his craft.

Baedal's geisha girlfriend, played by Aya Hirayama, is absolutely stunningly beautiful, and the movie is worth watching just for her. But it is a good movie in its own right, with a good portrayal of the Korean minority in Japan just after World War II. Although parts of the story and characters lack depth, I do find the movie generally satisfying, except in one respect: As the other commentators point out, it doesn't have a great deal of fighting, and the fights it does have are brief and relatively unimpressive - all the more so because Baedal apparently doesn't use any specific style. It doesn't ring true, either, that he gets to challenge every kind of martial arts school, from karate to judo and others. Would such schools accept challenges from someone with such an unspecific fighting style? I doubt it. But, I'm no expert on this.

In any case, despite these flaws, I think the overall style of the movie is very well made, and I enjoyed it a lot. I'd definitely recommend it to any fan of martial arts and action movies.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

i cant believe the comments made about this movie!this has to be Korea's best output in the martial arts genre since musa!!the fights certainly pull no punches you can hear heads and bones crunching!!i suggest you take another look and as you will see this a fine movie!!acting is good,the locations brilliant as the camera takes you around ghetto's to the wondrous scenes in the mountains,the training he puts him self through would make rocky balboa blush!!!the ice climb is excellent,you also get a feel for the period,this guy took no prisoners i can tell you,don't be put off from some reviews see this as a ruff n tumble session of extreme!!the last shot has to be seen to be believed!!!10/10 for a real gem of the martial arts kind!!!

I believe that this is one of the best movies to come out Korea in along time. It has got heart and soul and you can see that the director and the cast really care about bringing to life this story of one of the greatest martial artist in history. However despite how much I enjoyed this film there were a few flaws.

First some emotional parts in the story moves to fast and there are scenes f Korean and Japanese customs (such as shaving his eyebrows) that we don't understand and we are not given an explanation to. Another thing is that some moments of this movie are incredibly exxagerated and some are just made up for the movie. I don't understand why they did this since Oyama Mas had an amazing life without all the made up scenes.

Last is the action, I hear that most people didn't like the action because the fight scenes were short and brutal. However because I do martial arts and know a lot about Oyama Mas I believe that this was the right way for the movie. This is because Oyama never did any soft kungfu which you see in most movies these days, He did hard taekwondo and later created kyokushin karate and he always tried to finch his opponent with one punch. combat is not a dance where you can predict each other movements.

To be quite honest, I didn't know anything about this film before I had purchased it. In fact, I had only bought it for two reasons. The first was that I knew it was a martial arts film and two, because it featured Masayo Kato, who appears in a few movies that I happen to like. However, by the time I had finished watching the movie, I had to admit that it exceeded my expectations for a few reasons. For instance, it had some drama, which most martial arts films tend to lack; the picture quality was superb; and above all, it was an autobiographical sketch based on a real life martial arts master.

I won't go over the story, as I'm sure that a few other people had already given it away anyway. But to those who have criticized the film on the basis that it was "boring" just because the fights were too quick and not very well choreographed, I think it's important for them to acknowledge the fact that this was based on a true story. Most fights really did end relatively quick because of Choi Bae-dal's lethal blows. In fact, it was said that most fights between him and his opponents did not last more than three minutes, while other matches ended with only single blows coming from one of Bae-dal's kicks or punches.

Needless to say, I did enjoy the film as I've already emphasized above and was glad that I saw it for another reason: because I would not have embraced Bae-dal's depicted character with the same respect that I currently have for the other great martial arts legends, the likes of which include Musashi, Bruce lee, Wong Fei Hong, et al.

8 out of 10

OK, first things first; this is NOT a martial arts kung-fu beat em up movie (If you want that, go watch Ong-Bak!). Throw those expectations OUT and prepare to enjoy a very gripping action/drama with some of the most beautiful filmwork i've seen in a while. To keep it simple, this movie is very exaggerated biography of Choi Baedal (Later changed his name to Mas Oyama), founder of Kyokushin karate, starting from before WW2. The fight scenes are not like standard kungfu flicks. They don't fight for 5 minutes. It's realistic in this sense. They trade a few blows and one or the other falls down in severe pain. This movie screams of a comic book feel. Fight scenes are stopped in mid-action to emphasize the form and the impact of the blows, the color and framing of each shot is reminiscent of comics as well. It emphasizes Choi Baedal's super-heroish qualities. The storyline is very interesting, although it runs a little long. Overall, its a very beautiful film to watch. Its great to see a movie really focus on the philosophies and ideas of martial arts rather than just the fighting itself. It also deals with the fears mindset of a fighter. Its VERY sad, and can sometimes come off as corny, but the overall emotional impact is there. Watch it, and remember, its NOT a pure kung fu beat em up movie and you will enjoy it.