Top 10 Asian Sports Films

University professor and ex-sumo wrestler Anayama (Akira Emoto) heads the school sumo-wrestling club. Too bad he has no members. The desperate coach uses every trick in the book, including blackmail, to get students to join the team. But trying to get a bunch of kids who’d rather play basketball to buy into the traditional discipline of sumo is no easy task. Funny and heroic with a likable cast of characters, “Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t” racked up a list of awards the year it was released and remains a cult-favorite in Japan today.

In the first (and possibly only) movie made about handball, “Forever the Moment” tells the story of the 2004 South Korean women’s Olympic handball team. This group of unlikely competitors, many past their athletic prime, kept the eyes of an entire nation riveted on TV screens during their gutsy fight for the gold medal against Denmark. Outside the court, these women lead pretty boring lives, so this brief encounter with celebrity is the most exciting thing that will ever happen to them. This bittersweet layer over the underdog story tugs at the emotions, making you cheer that much harder during the epic final match..

Pro wresting is a pretty huge deal in Japan so the cult status of “Gachi Boy” comes as no surprise. But the all-out heart that infuses this film does. Ryoichi Igarashi (Ryuta Sato) is a high school genius whose bright future is shattered when an auto accident destroys his short-term memory. Just like Guy Pearce’s character in Memento, he gets through each day by taking meticulous notes. When he joins the wrestling team at school, Igarashi is a looking for a personal redefinition of identity and goals. Richly layered characters, humorous (sometimes silly) moments lend the cast realism. All the young actors do their own stunts so well it makes the final match an edge-of-your-seat thrill.

Most sports films concern themselves with the struggle of the athlete. “The Cup” demonstrates the passion of the sports fan. The movie was filmed at a remote Tibetan monastery where thoughts of the world outside are usually abandoned. A young novice fills the walls of his cell with posters of his soccer heroes and even wears a jersey under his robes. When the 1998 World Cup is being televised he is obsessed with watching the games, even if it means breaking a few rules. Director Khyentse Norbu, a Buddhist monk (he apprenticed under Bernardo Bertolucci during the filming of Little Buddha in 1994), brings an insider’s sensibility to this refreshingly different comedy.

In the 1990′s a young MuayThai boxer captivated crowds of fans with his talent and penchant for wearing make-up and kissing his opponents. Impoverished transvestite Nong Toom (played by kickboxer Asanee Suwan) dreams of being a woman. He’s also a super tough fighter whose in-ring antics throw his opponents off their game. Noog Toom needs to kick ass and win matches to afford the sex-change operation he so desperately wants. And kick ass he does. In the ring and out, Asanee Suwan gets it right with a performance as powerful as his kick. His portrayal of one of kickboxing’s most enigmatic characters is nothing less than brilliant.

Sori is remarkably faithful to his source material, a manga by Tekkon Kinkreet’s Taiyo Matsumoto, as he readapts the story of friendship between two boys, Peco and Smile, and their obsession with ping pong. Most people probably wouldn’t consider table tennis an extreme sport, unless they are Fumihiko Sori. In “Ping Pong” the players’ high-flying, acrobatic moves, punched up with some brilliantly placed CGI make the game more exhilarating than BASE jumping off Everest. Well not really, but watching “Ping Pong” is a lot healthier.

Crying Fist is the redemption story of two men whose self-destructive behavior has nearly ruined them. In parallel narratives, Sang and Kang try to change their desperately brutal lives through boxing. Kang, played by Oldboy’s Choi Min-Shik, is a former silver medalist who is so completely down on his luck he has sunken to becoming a human punching bag for cash. Writer/director Ryu Seung-Beom takes the other lead as Sang, an imprisoned delinquent who, in an unforgettable scene, pulls a Mike Tyson and bites off the ear of a fellow inmate. Their stories converge when Sang and Kang meet in the ring. With its graphic violence and dark, gritty feel, “Crying Fist” has been compared to another great boxing classic, “Raging Bull”.

Stephen Chow’s hilarious send-up involves a group of former Shaolin monks who apply their kung fu skills to soccer. At the time of its release Chow’s comedic talents were famous throughout Asia, yet few had heard of him in the States. Recognized today as a sports classic, the film simultaneously breathed new life into two tired genres and made Chow a worldwide success. Chow’s ability to playfully transform clichéd scenes into something we haven’t seen before is nothing short of genius.

Sponsors of the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo hired Kon Ichikawa to shoot a propaganda piece highlighting the buildings, facilities, and top athletes as a way to promote the city. Fortunately for us, Ichikawa had his own ideas about what to film and the result is a breathtaking tribute to the physical and emotional strength of the Olympic athletes. He focused his lens on winners and losers alike giving us an enduring portrait of those who have dedicated themselves to the perfection of the human body. Kon Ichikawa’s incomparable artistic and technical mastery place “Tokyo Olympiad” among the greatest documentaries of sport ever filmed.

This Bollywood extravaganza involves a group of peasants hoping to defeat an evil-minded British captain through a cricket match. Clocking in at 3 1/2 hours, it’s got everything – silly comedic antics, enough melodrama to warrant keeping the tissue box handy, training scenes, the all-important showdown – and dancing. Whew! The finely crafted “Lagaan” is so entertaining it made Time’s list of “All-time 25 Best Sports Movies”.