Sumo films

[Akinomaki 34,896]

A 1944 film with screenplay by Akira Kurosawa: Dohyo Matsuri (both English Wikipedia and the poster are almost certainly wrong with Dohyo-sai https://www.kadokawa-pictures.jp/official/dohyomatsuri/) - I never heard of the film before

Plays in the Meiji era, when sumo was in danger to disappear - shot as Japan went towards losing the war

http://kakitubata.hanagasumi.net/houga/土俵祭/土俵祭.html

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/gensou/kan/eigahyou60/dohyoumatsuri.html

http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1944/bt000160.htm

Edited November 2, 2019 by Akinomaki

[Rocks 1,731]

52 minutes ago, Akinomaki said:

A 1944 film with screenplay by Akira Kurosawa: Dohyo Matsuri (or in this case maybe Dohyo-sai) - I never heard of the film before

Me neither and I'm a big Kurosawa fan. Thanks for that. I only just skimmed a bit but it looks like the director was over ambitious for the equipment he had to work with. The direction on the sumo scene at around 30 minutes is awful. I really feel for the actors who had to stand there for hours leaning on each other's shoulders to get all those silly, and poorly done, panning and closeup shots. It's even worse at 1:15, at one point he actually has the camera bounce up and down.

[Tiger Tanaka 208]

Would love to get a comprehensive list of films Japanese or not that display sumo in some regard.

Just watched 1959's Yasujiro Ozu's 'Good Morning' and the young kids all try to huddle around a tv to watch Wakanohana I. I missed from the dialogue who the opponent was. They didn't show the match, just the pre-fight rituals.

The other one for me up until this point was the Bond film You Only Live Twice, which features a small speaking role for Sadanoyama. Bond enters the rikishi area to get his ticket to the sumo. Would love to know if anyone else can point out other rikishi that were in the warm up area during that scene.

[Yamanashi 2,961]

17 minutes ago, Tiger Tanaka said:

Would love to get a comprehensive list of films Japanese or not that display sumo in some regard.

Just watched 1959's Yasujiro Ozu's 'Good Morning' and the young kids all try to huddle around a tv to watch Wakanohana I. I missed from the dialogue who the opponent was. They didn't show the match, just the pre-fight rituals.

The other one for me up until this point was the Bond film You Only Live Twice, which features a small speaking role for Sadanoyama. Bond enters the rikishi area to get his ticket to the sumo. Would love to know if anyone else can point out other rikishi that were in the warm up area during that scene.

IMDB comes up with 40 titles:

https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?keywords=sumo-wrestling

Not all are "films".

I can't vouch for all of them (well, except the Ed Sheeran video).

[sumojoann 1,115]

5 hours ago, Tiger Tanaka said:

.

The other one for me up until this point was the Bond film You Only Live Twice, which features a small speaking role for Sadanoyama. Bond enters the rikishi area to get his ticket to the sumo. Would love to know if anyone else can point out other rikishi that were in the warm up area during that scene.

In my thread, "1940's Short Clip of Japanese Sumo Wrestling" in Ozumo Discussions, I ended up finding lots of Youtube videos that featured sumo wrestling in them.  Some were before the 1940's and some were up to the 1960's.  One of them was "007 Arrives in Japan & Sumo Wrestling Bout - You Only Live Twice".  One of the comments about this video answers your question about which other Rikishi were in the warm-up area during that scene.  This comment was written one month ago by someone with the User ID bigSUMOfan.  Here is his comment -----------

"Some of the wrestlers in this clip are 50th Yokozuna Sadanoyama (handing Bond his ticket), 48th Yokozuna Taiho (in the background while Bond gets his ticket), 53rd Yokozuna Kotozakura (in the actual bout on the left, though he was likely Komusubi or Sekiwake when the film was being made), and Komusubi Fujinishiki (in the bout on the right)."

 

 

[Naganoyama 5,372]

It's a bit odd that Taiho is wearing his tsuna given that sanyaku are already fighting, but I suppose they thought it would look impressive for the purposes of the film.

[sumojoann 1,115]

7 hours ago, Naganoyama said:

It's a bit odd that Taiho is wearing his tsuna given that sanyaku are already fighting, but I suppose they thought it would look impressive for the purposes of the film.

Lol, I didn't notice that until you mentioned it!  I just now posted a comment on Youtube inviting bigSUMOfan to join Sumo Forum.  He's the one who made the interesting comment about who was in the warm-up area & who was wrestling.  I thanked him for his knowledge of 1960's sumo.  Hopefully, he'll see my comment & find us here on the Forum.

[Tiger Tanaka 208]

Wow, great insight @sumojoann, thank you for the thorough research!

I was wondering if Taiho was in the picture. I wonder why they went with Sadanoyama to have the more prominent speaking role, as Taiho was so dominant during this time. 

Also wondered who was in the match. And I'm assuming the bout was just an exhibition? I doubt they'd let a film crew get so up close and personal during an actual match; the rikishi didn't even come close to touching the ground before the tachiai! 

[sumojoann 1,115]

2 hours ago, Tiger Tanaka said:

Wow, great insight @sumojoann, thank you for the thorough research!

I was wondering if Taiho was in the picture. I wonder why they went with Sadanoyama to have the more prominent speaking role, as Taiho was so dominant during this time. 

Also wondered who was in the match. And I'm assuming the bout was just an exhibition? I doubt they'd let a film crew get so up close and personal during an actual match; the rikishi didn't even come close to touching the ground before the tachiai! 

While Googling about the movie, I found this old thread on Sumo Forum! 

Tiger Tanaka, I just noticed that your User ID on this forum is from "You Only Live Twice".  In the movie, Tiger Tanaka is the head of the Japanese Secret Service.  How clever! 

I did confirm on an IMDB site that the sumo scene WAS filmed at the Kokugikan.  I read somewhere that someone said that the wrestlers in the movie didn't want to fight just a couple of bouts for the film, so they insisted on holding an all-day tournament.  So I guess that would be classified as an exhibition.

I just about died laughing when I read the IMDB Parent Guide for "You Only Live Twice".  In the section warning parents about "Sex & Nudity", one of the subjects was the mawashi.  Quote --- "In a sumo wrestling scene, the competitors wear traditional sumo costume, being only a band of cloth around the crotch and waist."

 

[sumojoann 1,115]

Here's an old video with no sound on the filming of "You Only Live Twice" in Japan 1966.  Expanded sumo scene starts at 2:26 & ends at 4:47.

 

Edited August 28, 2019 by sumojoann
To correct sumo scenes start time

[sumojoann 1,115]

Here is a video of James Bond in "You Only Live Twice" fighting a sumo wrestler who is wearing a tux!!  The actor who played the sumo wrestler, Peter Maivia, is the maternal grandfather of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson!  A great fight scene!!

 

[Yamanashi 2,961]

3 minutes ago, sumojoann said:

The actor who played the sumo wrestler, Peter Maivia,

I grew up on the West Coast of the U.S. in the sixties.  Peter Maivia was one of the superstars of wrestling: a real athlete, not just a fat guy with a mean face.  As I remember, his signature submission hold involved the "Samoan Suplex."

[sumojoann 1,115]

I read in the old Sumo Forum thread from 2006 (that I posted above), that in the James Bond movie, The Man with the Golden Gun, Roger Moore (Bond) is walking in a park that has some sumo statues.  The statues come to life & try to squeeze Bond to death.  In digging around Youtube, I finally found this short but hilarious scene from the movie.  In it, Moore fights back & wins by squeezing the wrestler's rear end and also giving him a wedgie which he accomplishes by violently twisting the knot on the wrestler's mawashi.  That kimarite is unfamiliar to me! lol  The wrestler screams & lets go of Bond.  Following this scene are short comments about Bond from Muhammad Ali, Howard Keel, Fred Trueman and Bjorn Borg.

 

[sumojoann 1,115]

In the old 2006 Sumo Forum thread that I post above, one commenter mentioned that in the 1998 version of Godzilla, there is a scene where a Japanese boat captain is watching sumo wrestling on a TV just before his ship is sunk. The commenter said the bout was between Yokozuna Akebono and Yokozuna Takanohana.  After digging around on Youtube for awhile, I finally found it!  There are 3 brief scenes of the sumo wrestling bout.  The camera keeps cutting away, but here's where they are ----- between 00:07 & 00:10, between 00:15 & 00:18 and between 00:30 & 00:32. 

 

[sumojoann 1,115]

Here is a short clip from a British film called "Blood Fight".  The description said it was dubbed into Hindi.  The sumo scene starts at 00:46 and runs til the end.

 

[sumojoann 1,115]

This is one of my favorite scenes from the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha".  Such great dialogue!  The young geisha is brought to a sumo tournament to meet an influential older man.  She takes an interest in the upcoming sumo bout.  He is at first dismissive but as her interest continues, he begins to explain what is about to happen.  After the end of the bout, she expresses a deeper understanding of why the man likes sumo so much.  He in turn is enchanted by the young geisha's understanding and instructs the older geisha to bring her again.  Here are the highlights of the dialogue --- Man: "Three things matter in life --- sumo, business and war.  Understand one, you know them all".  Geisha: "What is sumo but a dance between giants?  What is business but a dance between companies?"  I'd like to know about every kind of dance".  Man: "They are throwing salt to purify the ring.  That man is Miyabiyama, the greatest fighter in Japan".  (NOTE:  I hope I got the name right!).  Geisha: "But he's so tiny!!".  Man laughs. "Only compared to his opponent.  Miyabiyama may use hatakikomi.  Hatakikomi is a movement a smaller combatant uses to throw the larger man off balance.  Victory does not always belong to the powerful".  At this point, there is a TERRIBLE tachiai!  Miyabiyama defeats his opponent by using a throw that doesn't look to my newbie eyes like hatakikomi.  Man: "Now THAT'S hatakikomi!!!!"  Geisha: "I see why you like sumo.  You can never judge a man's power by his appearance alone".

 

[sumojoann 1,115]

Here are the sumo wrestling matches from the 1996 film "The Quest".

 

[Akinomaki 34,896]

32 minutes ago, sumojoann said:

"That man is Miyabiyama, the greatest fighter in Japan"

Played by Mainoumi - but the video is shown as unavailable

9 minutes ago, sumojoann said:

Here are the sumo wrestling matches from the 1996 film "The Quest".

with Futahaguro/Kitao

[sumojoann 1,115]

Here are some truly fake sumo wrestlers in this silly film!  Spoiler alert --- This movie also has nudity and a lot of violence!  The "sumo wrestlers" appear between 54:40 and 56:12.

 

Edited August 29, 2019 by sumojoann
I forgot to show the times the wrestlers appear in the movie.

[sumojoann 1,115]

15 minutes ago, Akinomaki said:

Played by Mainoumi - but the video is shown as unavailable

 

I'm not sure I understand, Akinomaki, when you say "the video is shown as unavailable".  Are you referring to the "Memoirs of a Geisha" clip I posted or something else?

[Akinomaki 34,896]

1 minute ago, sumojoann said:

I'm not sure I understand, Akinomaki, when you say "the video is shown as unavailable".  Are you referring to the "Memoirs of a Geisha" clip I posted or something else?

Yes, that's the message from YouTube when I try to play the video.  I guess with an US proxy/VPN it will show

[sumojoann 1,115]

5 minutes ago, Akinomaki said:

Yes, that's the message from YouTube when I try to play the video.  I guess with an US proxy/VPN it will show

Oh, how frustrating!  Do you have any way to watch the whole movie?  That's the only thing I can think of --- to find another way to watch the whole movie & then skipping to the sumo scene.  (I don't know anything about a US/VPN).

[Akinomaki 34,896]

2 hours ago, sumojoann said:

Oh, how frustrating!  Do you have any way to watch the whole movie?  That's the only thing I can think of --- to find another way to watch the whole movie & then skipping to the sumo scene.  (I don't know anything about a US/VPN).

I have seen the movie on DVD and remembered the scene - and now my usual Tsukuba univ. free VPN worked for the video with a UK proxy

[sumojoann 1,115]

6 minutes ago, Akinomaki said:

I have seen the movie on DVD and remembered the scene - and now my usual Tsukuba univ. free VPN worked for the video with a UK proxy

Oh great, so you were able to see it today?  I hope so!  I went poking around on Youtube again & I did come up with something --- The full movie dubbed in Thai!!  LOL  Here it is ---  The sumo scene starts at 48:06 & ends at 51:35.

 

[sumojoann 1,115]

This video was a World War 2 propaganda documentary from 1945.  It has some great vintage sumo footage in it so I decided to post it.  The documentary itself is offensive.  Just jump past it & go to 44:07 for the beginning of the sumo footage.  The sumo footage stops at 44:16 & there's more sumo footage at 45:00 which ends at 45:36.  It would be very interesting to know who the Yokozuna is in this documentary!!