Keiko, me wo sumasete

Insekten tanzen im flackernden Licht einer Straßenlaterne, eine blinkende Weihnachtsbeleuchtung: Tokyo, Dezember 2020. Wir tauchen ein in die Welt des Boxclubs, in dem Keiko trainiert. Eine Männerwelt, in der sie die große Ausnahme ist. Zudem ist Keiko gehörlos. Konzentration und Schweiß sind allerdings die einzige Währung, die beim Training wirklich etwas zählt. Beim Kampf dann – Keiko boxt seit einiger Zeit in der Profiliga – geht es um Gewinn. Es ist eine beglückende Erfahrung, Keiko in diesem fast dokumentarisch anmutenden Film dabei erleben zu dürfen, wie sie ihren Weg macht. Mit Unterstützung ihres Boxtrainers – oder ohne. Langsam, aber stetig. (Katja Wiederspahn)

The young boxer, who also works as a waitress, has been unable to hear since birth. Keiko spends her time working and training, living with a musician friend to cover the rent. Although she has people around her who appreciate her, she feels lonely at times. When her trainer and mentor decides to close the old gym located in the Arakawa area of Tokyo, the challenge for the protagonist is to overcome her feelings of loss and continue preparing for an important fight.
This film description barely touches upon the hidden greatness of one of the year’s most beautiful and delicate films. Miyake is capable of turning a routine training session or the simple act of making a bed in a hotel into an opportunity for surprise and to make detailed observations about his protagonist’s emotional state. Miyake also knows how to create lavish wide shots of Arakawa, full of affection for the place and those who live there. The meeting between two boxers who have been fierce opponents in the ring reveals an obvious sociological lucidity that needs no words. It is enough that one wears a factory worker’s helmet and the other goes out to train after having cleaned dozens of hotel rooms. A sequence touched by grace and by no means the only such sequence in the film. (Roger Koza)

Miyake Shō: PLAYBACK (2012), MISSHI TO BANNIN (2017), AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING (2018), WILD TOUR (2019), JU-ON: ORIGINS, (2020, TV-SERIE)