REVIEW: ‘Black Belt’ (2007)

Karate gets the high-brow treatment in director Shunichi Nagasaki’s stately period drama, BLACK BELT, starring three real-life karate black belts and instructors, Akihito Yagi, Tatsuya Naka and Yuji Suzuki. It’s a serious-minded, no-frills martial arts drama without the choppy editing, wires, CGI, cartoon sound effects, and exaggerated fighting moves of most modern martial arts actioners that star non-martial artists. Instead, it offers exceptional displays of authentic katas performed by highly skilled martial artists. Yet a flawed script by Joji Iida (THE SPIRAL) falls woefully short of the film’s ambitions and is unable to escape the pitfalls of genre convention and gaping holes in logic.

As a drama centered on martial arts, BLACK BELT begins promisingly amid the turbulent setting of Japan in 1932, roughly a year after military commanders stationed in China went rogue by invading Manchuria, against the wishes of the government back home in Tokyo. This led to the formation of the Manchukuo government, a Chinese puppet state and launching pad for Japan’s continued Imperialist expansion.

To fuel this expansion, it is decided that the many martial arts dojos scattered around Japan will be requisitioned by the military for use as training centers to prepare soldiers for combat.

This historical set up provides the basis for the three students of the Shibahara school of karate to become embroiled in the politics of the day in a way that plays out similar to Yuen Woo-ping’s kung fu actioner THE TAI CHI MASTER. In that film, Jet Li and Chin Siu-hou are Shaolin-trained kung fu practitioners who are cast out and end up at odds when the latter chooses to rise up through the ranks of a ruthless Eunuch’s army using force while Li chooses the righteous path by siding with rebels resisting oppression.

Likewise, Shibahara’s three students become divided martial orphans when their sensei dies, leaving them with nothing but their training, a tattered black belt and a mandate that they themselves must decide who will earn the belt and become the sensei’s successor. The final decision rests with the weakest of the three, Choei (Suzuki), a man whose skill is inadequate yet whose loyalty to Shibahara is unquestioned. Growing rivalry between the two remaining students forms the chief conflict with Taikan (Naka) choosing the path of might by agreeing to train soldiers for the military while toppling rival schools by defeating their masters.

Giryu (Yagi) is the troubled protagonist, a man haunted by his unintended humiliation of a military police captain during a duel that leads the officer to commit ritual suicide and his children to seek revenge. After settling in with a poor rural family, he becomes the protector of a young woman taken by thugs intending to sell her into prostitution.

Unfortunately, the film goes from noble to nutty with a silly subplot where Taikan’s boss, a military commander named Hidehisa Goda plots to use the karate expert to take over all of the dojos for use as centers for his own prostitution ring.

So while the film’s karate action and production standards have matured, the story is stuck in the 1970s with the likes of Sonny Chiba and Etsuko Shihomi taking on drug lords and pimps in the STREET FIGHTER and SISTER STREET FIGHTER series. The only other difference here is that the prostitution angle is secondary to the rivalry between Taikan and Giryu.

After Giryu rescues the girl, the two predictably end up in an extended match where everyone else in the film is literally sidelined. Kidnapped women, thugs, the military, and our karate experts all conveniently converge in one spot at the same time for one massively improbable scenario.

In a laughably absurd sequence, the thugs arrive to stop Giryu from helping the girls escape. Choei interrupts just as they are about to attack. Then Hidehisa arrives with a number of armed soldiers to interrupt the expectant skirmish again. Then, Taikan conveniently arrives just in time to interrupt what would have been the execution of Giryu. After all of this nonsense, Hidehisa is effortlessly subdued and literally everyone calls time out and disappears so that Giryu and Taikan can fight it out in the mud for 10 minutes to reach an epiphany about a core element of their sensei’s training.

The Japanese military, the thugs and the formerly kidnapped girls are apparently so awed by this impromptu mud wrestling match that they all stand together in silence to witness the outcome. Apparently, everyone became so enlightened that the girls were set free, the military commander gave up his efforts to create a prostitution ring and chose not to arrest or kill any of the remaining karate men. Actually, we have no idea what happened because the film ends here with a happy postlude stating that a new Shibahara school was opened.

With this plot, BLACK BELT could have worked as another grindhouse-friendly action film but Nagasaki continually tries to pass it off as an arty Yoji Yamada-style feature like THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI. There are lots of picturesque scenes of katas performed in beautiful natural locations and unexplained attempts at symbolism with imagery that includes red balloons and flowers. Then you have intentionally understated performances by the three fighting leads, none of whom were trained actors. Their substantial performances deserve a much better script than what they were handed.

Perhaps most unfortunate is the squandering of a beautiful score by Naoki Sato. His stately orchestral arrangements have the elegance and emotionally gripping qualities to match a far more substantial film. It could have worked in BLACK BELT had the film managed to keep the story grounded in history, as opposed to tripping over genre film conventions.

What saves the film from mediocrity is its unique depiction of karate as choreographed by Fuyukiho Nishi, an action director who went on to helm HIGH-KICK GIRL! (2009). He treats karate with respect by eschewing past camp depictions of the martial art, along with virtually all of the gimmicky film tricks that dominate the genre today. Instead, the action remains focused on real katas, strikes and defensive maneuvers both in training and real-world application. Aiding in the authentic depiction of karate are the leads, all non-actors brought in because of their actual karate proficiency and natural screen presence. This is especially true of the lead, Akihito Yagi, the son of famed Goju-ryo sensei Meitoku Yagi.

Akihito Yagi is a born martial arts star if ever there was one. While not as outwardly charismatic as Sonny Chiba or Bruce Lee, he exhibits an aura of control and confidence that is backed up by rock-solid execution of his chosen fighting forms. He possesses handsome, leading man looks well suited for serious, morally-driven roles such as we see in BLACK BELT. Yagi is the real deal. For his first acting gig, he delivers an outstanding performance both dramatically and physically.

Thankfully, Yagi’s naturally abilities have not gone unnoticed outside of Japan. In addition to a supporting role in Nishi’s HIGH KICK GIRL! he has been cast in Andrew Lau’s Chen Zhen biopic and we may see him going up against Donnie Yen, which would be fantastic.

Tatsuya Naka is another karate master with solid form and screen presence who has a future in martial arts cinema should the opportunity arise. He gets to show off some incredible striking speed and disarming techniques. In one of the more memorable action sequences in the film, Naka goes up against action director Fuyukiho Nishi who plays a top karate sensei.

The end fight between Naka and Yagi features an unusually long take with no tricks but it’s still disappointing because the decision was made to display a test of endurance rather than skill. Understandably, that was the point. As the two increasingly tired men struggle through mud in a black and white sequence, we are witnessing evenly matched opponents, one offensive and the other defensive, going at it with no advantage seemingly gained on either side. However, there is a related revelation by the end that justifies this dogged exchange.

BLACK BELT may not be the martial arts drama that it strives to be, yet with an attractive production, gorgeous music and masterful martial arts execution, it is a highly commendable effort nevertheless. Its depiction of karate is undeniably the best in feature film to date and the makers took a chance by putting real, skilled martial artists in lead roles instead of actors with limited martial arts training. A martial arts film like this is a rare and welcome find in a superficial era dominated by comic book superheroes, digital effects, wire stunts, and pop stars.