defense & offense: love fight

[kaigou]

If you weren't crazy about Fly Daddy Fly (or were just as ambivalent about it as I was), here's another one to sink your teeth into: a little Japanese coming-of-age movie called Love Fight.

Minoru (Kento Hayashi) has spent most of his life being protected by his spunky female best friend Aki (Kie Kitano). Fed up, he decides to take up boxing. However, just as he manages to get stronger than Aki she becomes obsessed with boxing herself.

The story opens with a schoolyard scene, in which our intrepid protagonist (well, one of them) is being bullied by three fellow pre-schoolers. Poor Minoru is trapped in the jungle gym, but right then another pre-schooler appears. Aki takes one look at the scene and flies into avenging angel rage.



Furiously, she tells the three bullies something that, you'll soon realize, will become her catchphrase in her friendship with Minoru: "If you ______, I, Aki Nishimura, will not forgive you!" Here, it's "if you bully Minoru." Defending her friend staunchly, she's almost overcome by the bullies but manages to chase them off; she returns to wipe the dirt off Minoru while chastising/questioning him about the fact that he's constantly being picked on.



In another move that will also become part of their trademark interaction, she pinches his cheeks until he cries that it hurts. Why, she asks him, doesn't he fight back? But he only cries, and she grows frustrated, losing her own temper with him.



When she pulls back, Minoru already obviously knows what's coming, and he covers his face... but gets a solid roundhouse kick to the ear anyway.



Fast-forward to the present day, and Minoru is being bullied again.

What soon becomes apparent is that he's no longer being bullied just because he's a crybaby, or a coward, but because he's constant companion to a pretty girl: Aki. The head hooligan wants Minoru to set him up with Aki on a date, or possibly they want Minoru out of the way if he's competition, but it amounts to the same.

Minoru is all agreement, willing to do whatever they're asking... until the camera looks past him to see that Aki's arrived in the game center. His expression is anything but delight. Actually, it looks a lot like stark terror.



The hooligans, of course, are delighted that the object of their affection has arrived. Aki's all smiles at seeing Minoru, and seemingly oblivious to what's going on. And you believe that only for the split-second it takes her to toss her schoolbag to Minoru, that is.



Then, in rapid succession, she kicks the first guy in the groin. While he's bent over in pain, she spins for a solid round-house to his head. With barely a pause and a flip of her hair, she takes the second guy down with two solid punches to the gut, and sweeps the legs out from under the third guy, catching him mid-retreat. When the third guy's down, she finishes him up with a solid stomp.



The two characters are high-school age, but their dynamic has clearly changed little. Aki's a great deal more blase about it, taking her bag from Minoru and walking off like nothing's happened. Minoru is upset about the fighting, and now Aki doesn't even give him warning. She just turns on him with a casual round-house...



...which notably he's skilled at ducking, now. She finishes it up with a cheek-pinch until he protests. Both of them give the segment an almost casual, habitual air that it's obvious they've been doing this for a long time.

But soon enough, we have our next set of eventual victims to Aki's kicks: three would-be gangsters, watching through the window of the ballet studio. Aki's so graceful, and elegant, and feminine. She's the epitome of the perfect girlfriend!



It took me a bit to parse that the movie is assuming that the defeated hooligans wouldn't have spilled the beans about Aki's fighting skills, because this would mean admitting that she'd defeated them soundly. Their wish to appear strong/masculine allows her the silence to continue appearing the sweet and delicate girl, but it also means she doesn't have the protection of a reputation -- that is, there's no point where she could hope for the Minoru-bullying to stop. Granted, it also means she doesn't have to deal with challengers daily (and can catch her opponents unaware and unprepared), but it also means repeating this scene over and over.

And over... but this time, someone other than Aki breaks the moment. An older guy happening past interrupts the bullying. (Minoru does pretty well ducking and avoiding a lot of the punches, thanks to his years of practice with Aki's kicks -- but when he's pinned by two and held for the third, he's out of luck.)



The rescuer this time is a retired championship boxer, Joe Oki, who now coaches at a slightly-decrepit studio. After the bullies are run off, Minoru follows the guy's path to find the studio, and decides he wants to learn how to box, to become strong, to be able to defend himself.

Training begins, and in the process, he meets Kyoko (Shoko Fujimura) who confesses to Minoru. She'd never known he was into boxing, and isn't he so big and strong! Her sighing over his (not-quite-existent) prowess is our first warning that we're dealing with a major romantic, but more on her in a bit.



Meanwhile, Aki has caught word of the latest set of hooligans harassing Minoru. She calls one of them out, and boy, isn't he utterly fooled by the sweet and helpless looks she gives him. She doesn't quite bat her eyelashes at him, but she comes damn near close. And he, of course, is just agog with the thought that sweet and delicate Aki is impressed by him.



Agog enough that he shyly agrees -- coaxed along by more bashful smiles and helpless cooing from Aki -- to demonstrate his signature move, the headlock. He's all consideration, is this okay, is that, and Aki's like, 'keep going, keep going...' until he's finally got her in a complete hold. At which point she escapes, flips it around, and begins smacking him on the head in time as she tells him never to mess with Minoru again.



He takes this at first, but given his previous showings, no surprise he's eventually able to get free. It's not clear what exactly he'll do if he gets the upper hand, but that's okay. The only hand he's got is Aki's, but that's not going to be enough. And just because I absolutely adore her maneuver, here it is in a few frames of glory.



She twists back towards him, and kicks up at him. He evades, and she uses her upper body as counterweight to the force of her leg swinging around.



As her leg comes down, the motion continues through her body so she's moving forward into his hold, twirling not unlike a classical ballroom move. A martial ballroom, that is.



That turn breaks his hold and she completes the spin, coming to a stop facing him -- and with just enough time for her trademark hair flip and a quick smile...



...before she hauls off and gives him a solid punch to the gut, knocking the wind from him.

Second part in next post.

Comments

[hokuton_punch]

... well shit I'm already in love. *_*

[kaigou]

Get in line!

[taithe]

Ahaha this brings back memories. Will look into this.

[kaigou]

Brings back memories, eh? I'm sure there's a story in there...