Box!

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Movie: Box!
Romaji: Bokusu!
Japanese: ボックス！
Director: Toshio Lee
Writer: Naoki Hyakuta (novel), Kenichi Suzuki, Daisuke Habara
Producer: Yoshitaka Takeda, Osamu Kubota, Kazuya Hamana
Cinematographer: Akira Sakou
Release Date: May 22, 2010
Runtime: 126 min.
Production Company: Toho, TBS
Distributor: Toho
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan

Plot

Set in a high school boxing club in Osaka, Kabu (Hayato Ichihara) is a likeable delinquent who cuts up during classes, but works masterfully in the boxing ring. Then one day on the subway, Kabu takes out three thugs who are harassing a young couple. When Kabu gets off the train, he realizes that the man being harassed is his childhood friend Yuki (Kengo Kora), who moved away several years back. To Kabu's delight he learns that Yuki has now moved back to town and is now attending the same high school as Kabu. A few days later, Kabu insists to the timid Yuki to join the boxing club. After much badgering upon Kabu's part, Yuki finally decides to take up the boxing gloves. Although Yuki is completely new to the sport, he does train with earnest determination.

Meanwhile, a local boxing tournament takes place with Kabu easily going through his opponents. That is until the championship match when Kabu faces the highly feared boxer named Inamura (Suwa Masashi). To Kabu's surprise, Inamura knocks out Kabu. The loss devastates Kabu and he quits the boxing club. Yuki, on the other hand, stays in the club and trains as diligently as ever. When Kabu finally rejoins the boxing club, Yuki and Kabu both train for the next tournament to take out Inamura, but Inamura has a surprise for the two boxers ...

Notes

Actor Hayato Ichihara has trained in boxing under the tutelage of ex-boxing champion Nobuyuki Tabata since August 2009.
Filming will begin January, 2010 and last for two months in Osaka and Tokyo.
"Box!" will feature many boxing scenes with the actors performing the scenes without stuntmen.

Cast



Hayato Ichihara	Kengo Kora	Yu Kashii	Mitsuki Tanimura	Toshio Kakei	Misa Shimizu
Kabu	Yuki Kitaru	Youko Takatsu	Satoko Maruno	Kantoku Saoki	Satoko's mom

Additional Cast Members:

Mai Hosho - Kabu's mom
Mami Yamasaki - Kabu's sister
Suwa Masashi - Inamura

Trailer

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Image Gallery

Film Festivals

2010 (14th) Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival - July 15th-25th - Vision Express * Asian Premiere

Comments

Comment #1
RamenLover Says:
Sep 23 2010 12:16 am

Watched "Box!" at this year's PiFan festival with director Toshio Lee appearing after the screening and doing a Q&A. First off, I didn't have high expectations for the film ... even though I really enjoyed Toshio Lee's "Detroit Metal City". I guess I have seen a lot of boxing films and didn't think this that could anything new to that sub-genre. Well I was wrong. "Box!" isn't a game changer in boxing films, but it's an incredibly well done film with highly unexpected turns of events that keeps you guessing. Cheers to the main actors, especially Hayato Ichihara who never performed better. The fight scenes were all done believably and I recall Toshio Lee explaining that the final round in the final fight was shot in one take. The actors were told if any mistakes occurred to keep going (I didn't see any mistakes). Also Toshio Lee mentioned that bad boy boxer Inamura, played by Suwa Masashi, is a real life boxer. That dude kicked some ass in the film. Anyways "Ping Pong" is still my favorite Japanese sports film of all time, but "Box!" makes a strong 1A candidate. Highly recommended - check it out!