THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – WHY NOT
Forget the boxing show at the cinema, the gleaming gongs and the little cult music of a certain blockbuster with its bodybuilder actor, Sylvester Stallone in rocky (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6!, with Rocky Balboa), not to name it. Selected in 2022 at the Berlinale, in the Encounters section, The beauty of the gestureby the Japanese Sho Miyake, is freely inspired by the biography of a hard of hearing boxer, Keiko Ogasawara.
Keiko (Yukino Kishii) is obviously looking for something other than glory by taking on her opponents and working her uppercuts. In addition to being deaf, which prevents her from hearing instructions in the ring, she starts from afar, with her slender physique and short arms, as her trainer (Tomokazu Miura) affectionately says, but she s perseveres, progresses, and manages to move into the professional category.
The film is based on a whole mute language captured with delicacy by the director: the exchange of looks and gestures with the coach, a kind of second father, in the somewhat decrepit club where she spends most of her time, give rise to the most successful plans, beautifully choreographed, broadening the horizon of boxing to other stories and performances, which we can easily guess – emancipation, living with one’s handicap, at the risk of aligning the criteria of diversity, and to put societal issues in the foreground to the detriment of the work, which is not devoid of beauty.
Scenario too corseted
The actors lend themselves to the game with finesse, the image is alive, served by the grain of the 16 mm film. But the scenario, too corseted as it is by its desire to do well, loses freedom, installing the spectator on a rolling carpet with all the ingredients. The beauty of the gesture is also lost in parallel stories, side stories that only complete an agreed picture: to earn a living, Keiko works as a cleaning lady in a hotel, chaining domestic rituals already seen in the cinema, without the filmmaker brings his singular vision – an escape, an incongruous encounter, a dream, etc.
Same polished atmosphere in the small apartment, where the young woman cohabits – we cannot say otherwise – with her brother, a musician, with whom she does not seem to want to share much. Finally, the boxing club is in decline, the students are unsubscribing one after the other, it smells like bankruptcy and the boss is not in his best shape.
Sho Miyake attempts to weave a device that lays a bit flat. Over the course of the disappointments, the links between the characters tighten to the point of becoming unbreakable, and the boxer tempted to leave everything has already come a long way. Very straight.
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