"Throw Down." Judo Movie on DVD now.

[Bubble Boy]

Was wandering through the video store and found this movie in new realease. "Throw Down" was directed by Hong Kong director Johnnie To. He's supposedly very famous in China, but I've never heard of him. He wanted the movie to be a homage to Akira Kurosawa's "Sugata Sanshiro" (1943), the greatest judo movie ever made.

The movie is fictional.
This is not a documentary.

The movie basically follows an ex-judo champ (now a drunk gambler) being hounded by an up-and-coming judoka for a fight, and an old rival at the same time.

The Good:
The movie is stylish, and visually exceptional. The sound track is really nice, kind of new agey, but appropriate. The production value and scene atmospheres are beautiful. This film is technically very, very stylish.
The Judo fight scenes range from very average to extraordinary. Ironically the ground fighting scenes are the very best. Some of the camera angles really catch the feel of grappling on the ground. There's tons of triangle chokes, armbars, gi chokes, kimura's, you name it. Brilliant. This director made ground fighting look dynamic and believable at the same time.
The throws, however, are not always as believable, and have an element of "Crouching Tiger" meets an Aikido demonstration. Too kung fooey-ish, not enough real judo. Good stuff, but not great. The director does, however, manage to catch the judo idea of throwing directly into a pin or submission. That's nice to see.

The Bad:
Not enough action.
Plodding stroyline.
The movie can't figure out if it wants to be an action movie or a drama.
Weak story to begin with.
Loosely organized. More about style than substance.

On a scale of 1 to 10 a 7.

But dudes! It's a judo movie. Go check it out, it's worth renting. Some good judo.

 

[clarkgriswold]

I just watched the preview on netflix and put it number one on the queue. My wife will kill me via rnc when it comes in. Preview looked like the movie probably sucks but for the fact of a couple of cool judo scenes.

 

[daigoro]

Just watching the main character's rival breaking everyones arm is worth the rental.

 

[Bubble Boy]

Just watching the main character's rival breaking everyones arm is worth the rental.

The young guy? I like how he tells everyone "It's just a dislocated elbow, what's the big deal?" after he armbars the shit out of them. His bouts against the huge doorman to earn party money are humorous too.

 

[Cornsloth]

I watched this like two months ago, it's not bad, not really good but not bad. Watch only if you enjoy grappling, though I suppose that a judo player would have more respect for it that a BJJ guy.

 

[daigoro]

The young guy? I like how he tells everyone "It's just a dislocated elbow, what's the big deal?" after he armbars the shit out of them. His bouts against the huge doorman to earn party money are humorous too.

I meant Kong(?) the guy who breaks the young guys arm and who Szeto fights at the end. "I only use this technique."

 

[Bubble Boy]

I meant Kong(?) the guy who breaks the young guys arm and who Szeto fights at the end. "I only use this technique."

Ok, the street fight scene. That was some funy far fetched shit. Can you imagine one of these movie star guys actually fighting in Pride? That would be...
...er...
Never mind.

 

[sambosteve]

It's all far fetched in Hong Kong films...gotta suspend disbelief and enjoy the scenes. On another note, the DVD version I watched is missing some critical scenes from the original. I caught the original in a Hong Kong film festival last year and was psyched to see the DVD. After I got it, I was so pissed that there was a lot of stuff missing. I hate when they take stuff out for the American versions. There is more story in the original. If you watch the extras you will see them behind the scenes of scenes cut from the American release.

 

[El Gato]

Thanks for the heads up on a cool sounding movie . Check out Brazilian Brawl it's a B movie , but still fun to watch . I think Block Buster carries it .

 

[Lester McGrath]

I saw it on DVD, original DVD, about a year ago. There's a video rental store that specializes on foreign films near by.

 

[Kuroi Kaze]

yeah i agree it's just okay.

however the all judo bar fight sent me into uncontrollable fits of laughter.

 

[Darth Shlong]

i always see it at blockbuster but never rented it for fear that it would suck beyond words but with this thread im gonna check it out. probbly buy it to add to my "movies that i just have for grappling scences collection"
if anybody watches anime, check out Shootfighter Tekken 2, it has a Jiujitsu fighter from Goetsu School in the plot, the animation isnt that good by comparison to top shelf anime but ive never seen zhoo zhit sooo in any other anime, and im quite teh connesiour
grappler baki ive yet to see, ill rent it before i but i buy it but im getting throw down for sure, thanks for the review

 

[Kuroi Kaze]

baki doesn't have much grappling if i recall.

i've wanted to watch shootfighter tekken, but just haven't had the time.

 

[Jack321]

The two guys who play the judo champions are pretty famous actors in Asia (I watch a lot of HK movies). They aren't going to be doing throws like an olympic gold medalist or anything. I think it was cool that they made a movie totally about Judo, and put in some pretty well-known (in Asia) actors to play the parts. Doesn't that mean Judo is on the way up?

 

[Jack321]

By the way, what's with all the judo guys now in Pride. Is that because of Yoshida or because more judo guys want to fight in pride, or something else?

 

[Yozigi]

By the way, what's with all the judo guys now in Pride. Is that because of Yoshida or because more judo guys want to fight in pride, or something else?

What's with all the BJJ'ers in PRIDE?

Seriously: Yoshida started the "boom" for many top level judokas to fight in MMA and as a Olympic gold-medalist and a world champion he made it more acceptable among the most tight-assed purists. But it's not like he'd been the first judo guy in Pride or MMA overall. Throughout the history of MMA, there has almost always been fighters with a strong judo background fighting top competition in other organizations than Pride (TK, Sakurai, Mishima etc.).