Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a Japanese film from 2004. That movie is "The Calamari Wrestler".
And I believe that titles summarizes everything I know about the plot to this movie. Which is about a wrestler who's also, apparently, a calamari. And yes, I know that it's suppose to be a guy in a calamari suit, but unlike modern wrestling, I.E. WWE and AEW, who constantly go out of their way to destroy kayfabe, and have to keep beating you over the head about it, I like to try to broaden my imagination a little bit when it comes to professional wrestling and it's kayfabe.
So anyway, now that I've gotten that mini rant out of the way, I'm gonna tell you, guys, I'm really looking forward to watching this movie. In fact, I've been wanting to watch it for a few years, however, thanks to scheduling conflicts, I didn't get a chance to do so, which is why it kept getting pushed back. But now that I finally have room for it in the schedule, I now get to see what this movie can do with this sort of premise. And the only way I'm gonna know if this thing is any good at all is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "The Calamari Wrestler".
5 minutes later
All right, guys, allow me to summarize everything that's happened within the first 5 minutes or so of the movie. Two wrestlers battled it out for the title. One of them wins with a submission hold, and then soon after his victory, our squid wrestler appears in the ring and challenges him for the title. And long story short, the squid wins with a Northern Light suplex pin, thus winning the title from our newly crowned champion. And the only thing I have to point out here is that *nobody* is questioning the fact that a squid just won your world championship title! But hey, as I said earlier in my remarks about kayfabe, I'm going to give this movie the benefit of the doubt and see where they go from here.
13 minutes later
Wait, so let me if I understand this. So the head guy of Super Japan Pro Wrestling is comparing our calamari wrestler to stuff like nuclear war, terrorism, mysterious viruses, the economy, politics, and all this other shit, to anxieties of the people of Japan in hopes that a Japanese wrestler beating the calamari wrestler will raise their spirits. Dude, what kind of drugs are you on to compare heavy shit like that to a squid wrestler beating another wrestler? I mean, I can kind of understand what he's actually trying to convey here, such as when an American defeats a foreign heel for national pride or something, but it's still a really stupid comparison. Just thought I'd mention that.
18 minutes later
You know, guys, what's really making this film stand out so far? The fact that they're just kinda playing it straight up, what with them acknowledging the squid wrestler as if it's some normal entity, is what's making the whole thing even funnier. I'm really liking how they're handling the writing in this film. It's really good, so far.
4 minutes later
OK, guys, I was just about to comment on a really stupid pun...but I'm gonna ignore that because, holy shit, it's Yoshihiro Takayama! Dude, that is an awesome cameo appearance we're getting from him. If you don't know who Takayama is, go look up some of his matches sometime. They're really good.
12 minutes later
O...K...I was totally not expecting that appearance from Taguchi. I'm curious as to how that happened to him, but still, I was really not expecting that kind of change. And no, I'm not gonna tell you what that change is, guys, you're just gonna have to watch the movie for yourself.
9 minutes later
OK, now we have a...bug kind of creature beating up our calamari wrestler with boxing gloves...and it's known as the Squilla Boxer. What the fuck am I watching?!
The Review
Well, guys, that was "The Calamari Wrestler". Let me shut the movie off now...OK. Wow, um...I'm trying to figure out where to start with this film? So, you guys remembered earlier when I said that I kept putting this film off? Well, I probably should've seen it earlier, but I guess now is a better time than any. This film is great! I really enjoyed this movie a lot, guys.
So, why don't we start thing off, as usual, with where I normally start with these reviews. Let's start with the writing. Now the main thing you have to take into account here is the fact the premise here is overly ridiculous, and the filmmakers knew this going in. There's no way in hell that you're gonna take a movie with this sort of premise and turn it into a serious movie. Now yes, there are some moments in here where they add in some serious bits, but it's never heavy handed and it doesn't weigh the down the film's tone at all. This film is a comedy first and never shies away from it. The filmmakers took a ridiculous premise and ran with it, and thus the result is what you get with this movie.
Now since I'm on the subject, let's talk about the humor in this movie. The humor here is great. It's very sharp and, although there may be one or two jokes here that are kinda shit, and those are mainly puns, everything else here is funny as hell. It's very sharp and witty and you're guaranteed to get a laugh out of it. That's how good the humor is. Also, and I'm probably the one who kinda noticed it, they even referenced some of the "Rocky" films to an extent. You have the first, with the calamari wrestler winning the big title in semblance with Rocky winning his first big championship. Then you have the big rematch between the calamari wrestler and Taguchi, which is also similar to the rematch between Rocky and Creed in the second film. And they even referenced the third film, where you have Taguchi training the calamari wrestler for the next upcoming big fight, which is also similar to Apollo Creed training Rocky. Now if you've never seen any of the "Rocky" films, you probably wouldn't notice these references. As I said, I'm probably the only one who notices some similarities between those films and this one. But still, it's very brief, and also really good stuff, too.
Our characters here are also very interesting and very likable. In fact, damn near the entire cast is very likable and have tons of personality. Which is something that I haven't seen from a lot of movies nowadays, though that's just a personal thing. This movie has a ton of charm and personality that really makes it stand out in a positive way. And on the subject of our calamari wrestler, I should mention one thing about him. Without spoiling anything, they give out a twist about our calamari wrestler, and they do it pretty early on, too. And it's something that you're either gonna get use to or you're just going to flat out despise it. I say this, mainly because, again, our plot is about a squid wrestler, and it does have a backstory that if I tried to go into detail about, I would already be giving away the big spoiler. However, I'm not sure if it's really as big as I'm making it out to be since, again, they reveal it pretty early on. And they also give you hints very early on, too. So it's not like you're gonna be lost or confused about the origin of this calamari wrestler. It's just something that you have to take for what it's worth. It really just depends on how much you can suspend your disbelief about a movie involving a squid wrestler.
Guys, I'll just summarize here: The writing in this movie is great. Not just in terms of humor, but it also has a unique charm to it that will suck you in, especially if you're a fan of professional wrestling. That's part of the reason why I wanted to check this movie out in the first place because I am a wrestling fan. Granted, I don't really follow much of modern wrestling nowadays, but I still enjoy it from a time when it was actually interesting. And this movie is definitely on the high interest scale. It is such a good movie. Now, the acting is also pretty good, too. Mind you, there's no English dub here, as you only get it's original Japanese audio with English subtitles. But what you got here is all of the actors just livening it up and having a blast with their roles. No one here is phoning it in and I would imagine that if you tried to phone it in for a movie like this, then you have no business being in this film. Every actor gives out a 100% in their roles and they do a really good job with it.
I haven't had a chance to talk about this very often, but I want to mention the fight choreography. Because, since this movie involves wrestling, you would naturally have to consider how to incorporate it with our titled character. And I'm gonna tell you guys, right now, the fight choreography is really fucking good. All of the matches in this movie, what few there are, are very entertaining and you do get a taste of how our calamari wrestler...well, wrestles. He does have some standard wrestling moves like suplexes and rest holds, but he's also a capable fighter, too, as you get to see him striking his opponents with his tentacles. It's really good stuff, and I gotta give a ton of props to whoever it was in that costume doing the choreography the entire time. I gotta imagine that it must've been hot as hell in that suit, but I'm sure he had to have a lot of fun being in it, too. And that definitely counts for something.
And since I'm on the subject, let's talk about the costuming here. Costuming in this movie is fantastic. The details on our titled character looks great, as is that Squilla Boxer I mentioned a while back. This is some very creative stuff here when it comes to costuming. All of the suit work involving these costumes are great and if it's possible, I would love to see how they came up with this stuff behind the scenes. And I do believe the DVD does have that option, so I'm gonna have to check that out at some point whenever I get the chance. But yeah, guys, costuming in this movie is fantastic.
Camerawork here is really good. Lighting here is perfect. The sound-mixing is great. And the score here is also really good, too. In fact, there was one track that played during the ending credits that I listened to for a bit before shutting off the movie to do the review, and it sounded really good, too. So I'm probably gonna have to listen to more of that at some point on my next viewing of this movie.
And I guess that more than gives away on what I'm about to say next. When all is said and done, guys, can I recommend "The Calamari Wrestler"? Oh, you bet your ass I'm gonna recommend it. This movie is great. It's great as a comedy, it's funny as hell, and it's also a big love letter to professional wrestling. If you are a wrestling fan and you're interested in checking out some wrestling movies that you haven't seen before, then I would *highly* recommend this movie. It is amazing, and I'm proud to finally own a copy of this movie on DVD for my ever growing collection. So now, I'm gonna go and browse some older wrestling DVDs that I have and watch one of those. I'm not sure which one yet, but I have plenty of options, so I'm gonna go do that next after I get done with this review here.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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