japanese film festival (3-6 March 2014)

At the RAWALPINDI ARTS COUNCIL (6 MARCH 2014, 10:30 am)

Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t  Colour/ 1992 /Length 103 minutes

Yamamoto is called to the office of Professor Anayama. The professor points out the anomalous fact that even though the role says he was present at every class, he’d never set eyes on the student before. He then announces that he has been appointed Yamamoto’s thesis advisor, and points out that, even though Yamamoto has a job arranged, he needs to pass the thesis to graduate. With the power relations thus defined, he strikes a deal with Yamamoto: join the sumo club, or you won’t graduate.

            Professor Anayama was a grand champion in college sumo, and he watched the club deteriorate into a one-man team. Now students were more interested in football and scuba-diving. Now if they don’t at least appear at meets with a team, the club will be closed down. With his beautiful (female) graduate student Kawamura as club manager, Prof. Anayama begins recruitment with poor Yamamoto. Eventually, they find enough students to qualify as team: Aoki (the incompetent club veteran), Tanaka (a lonely, overweight boy who’s never been invited to be on a club before. Haruo (Yamamoto’s brother, who’s sick of wrestling in drag in the pro-wrestling club), and Smiley (who agrees only for the free room and board).

            Manager Kawamura, who’s writing a thesis on manipulation of the media, manages to get the team on TV. Suddenly young, female fans line up outside the club house to watch practice. One of them, Masako, is overweight and suffers the the same prejudice that Tanaka does. She has a crush on Haruo, and joins the club to cook and clean.

            Their first performance was embarrassingly bad.
Feeling like it’s futile, Professor Anayama takes them to his hometown for vacation to relax and eat (fatten up). One day, they practice with a local junior school team and win. A rival college team looks on and teases them, a fight ensues, and soon the competitive juices begin to flow.

            At the lower level tournament, the team manages to win. However, Haruo breaks his arm in the process. The next day the team is supposed to complete to advance to the next division. In desperate need of new wrestler, Masako volunteers. One of the most sexiest of sports, sumo does not allow women to even enter the ring. Furthermore, she’d have to wear only a mawashi (sumo’s colorful jock strap). However, Masako insists, and the next day they show up with the proper number of players….