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By Newsweek Editors
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Throughout the 1950s, the Japanese wrestler Rikidozan disposed of his American opponents in the ring with a dizzying array of pile drivers, head butts and thunderous karate chops. Still smarting from World War II, the Japanese ate it up and turned Rikidozan into a national hero. But the wrestler was a fraud--and not just because his matches were often scripted. Rikidozan hid from his fans the biggest secret of all: his Korean identity.
This lifelong deception is the topic of a new South Korean film, "Rikidozan," which opened at No. 1 in Korea last month. (It is due out in Japan in June.) With a Korean director, producer and star--but performed in Japanese with mostly Japanese actors--"Rikidozan" is a $10 million project as big, ambitious and transnational as its hero.
Rikidozan's life--and death--were tailor-made for the screen. Born Kim Shin-rak in 1923 in what is now North Korea, he left for Japan at 15 to become a sumo wrestler. He made it to the sport's third highest rank before quitting after an argument with an official. He eventually discovered the world of professional wrestling, and spent two years learning the choreographed sport in Hawaii. Soon after returning to Japan in 1954, he teamed up with a judo champion to face the Sharpe brothers. The fight was carried live on Japanese TV, and the whole country watched them overcome impossible odds and beat the huge Americans.
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Rikidozan quickly became a national icon. He created the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance, teaching dozens of wrestlers his rough-hewn style. But because of intense anti-Korean prejudice in Japan, Kim kept his heritage a secret, telling people that he was really Mituhiro Mimoto from Nagasaki. His career came to an end in 1963, when at 39 he was stabbed by a yakuza gangster in a nightclub. Though he made it to the hospital, his wound was improperly treated and he died a week later of peritonitis.
The fight to bring Rikidozan's story to the big screen has been nearly as colorful. Although more than 160 books have been written about him, no one had ever turned his life into a film. The yakuza connection spooked Japanese producers. "Rikidozan is essentially a political figure in Japan," says director Song Hae-sung. "There are still a lot of unsolved controversies surrounding his death, the prime factor being that the gang member involved in his murder is even now nestled inside the yakuza."
Though four Japanese companies were purportedly interested in the rights to Rikidozan's story, they were still in the planning stages when Korean producer Tcha Sungjai jumped in. For Tcha, it represented the perfect chance to break into the Japanese film market, the world's second largest. To play Rikidozan, Tcha turned to one of Korea's hottest actors, Sul Kyung-gu. Sul essentially had to learn Japanese, gain 20 kilos and train as a professional wrestler, all in five months. "It was way beyond my abilities," Sul says. "But I wanted to put myself to the test." As any real wrestler would.
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