AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

YouHeart I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

GetPapa Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

stcostanzo This movie is utter Korean Propaganda from the very beginning until the end. I can understand it's a work of fiction but distorting the reality in this manner, filling it with anti-Japanese feelings and displaying Korean martial arts superiority over Japanese ones is just ridiculous and unpleasant.Masutatsu Oyama never learned any Korean martial art in his life, he spent his entire existence living and working in Japan, creating a new Karate style in Japan from other Japanese martial arts. Portraying him like a lonely Korean wanderer traveling the country beating up Japanese masters is silly since the respect and devotion that he always manifested for Budo and ancient martial traditions. For a period of his life he studied under a Korean master but that was again on Japanese soil and the martial art was Goju-ryu Karate.Another pathetic attempt from Korea to downplay their arch-rivals the Japanese. I believe that the fact that Oyama was born in Korea is indeed something to be proud of, but there are certainly other and more suitable ways to pay homage to his memory.

the_greek-22645 Fighter in the wind... Haven't i watched it like a 100 times. Friends even make fun of my passion about this movie. I love it not only for the writing or martial arts scenes, but mostly for letting the main hero progress and grow as a person through the film and letting me know him better all the time during his changes. The unskilled, afraid young Korean in the racist Japan community, having to take on bullies, underworld and surviving. The guy who watered himself out of terror, became the best fighter in the world. This film gives him space and time to evolve and make us know him better over time. This is how you get attention from the audience Hollywood!! Many lessons can be taught to western action movie makers, even to this day 11 years later. The human aspect of the hero taking beaten, letting us see his wounds, care for him... Seeing his knuckles and body bloody and beaten. Showing us his suffering. Even more showing us how he fought his own demons and set his mind to victory, how he decided to take off to the mountains and train, how much he wanted to become better and stronger. Not only as a fighter, but as a person as well. This is what makes him exemplar to us watching. I know that this is not Oyama's 100% real story, but i do not care. Character build up, minimalistic editing and great fight scenes made me fall in love with this movie.I will never forget his notion about fighting and perhaps dying. His deepest fears. Great movie, must see!

Cronquist One of the best Karate movies I've seen so far in my life which has nothing to do with the crap from Hollywood.It gave me interesting insights about the development of Karate-do, the historical setting after WWII, the post war problems and of course about the life of Oyama shihan.There are no high tech special effects, no rope action but the pure essence of martial arts and it's philosophy. No matter which martial art or which style you practice this movie is a real inspiration. The soundtrack is amazing and the fighting scenes are very impressive.A must see for every true Karate-ka out there. 9/10

YW Sin As a person who had been practicing martial art, I have really appreciated this movie for its excellent realism. Lately, I was getting rather tired of -though visually stimulating; over fancy Chinese martial art movies. But action is only a small part of this movie; the other impressive side is the photography and genuine looking set-ups with involving actors and actresses. I especially found the two Japanese actors, Masaya Kato and Aya Hirayama excellent in the screen. Though few have mentioned that this movie is anti Japanese, I find that this is really not the case and any rational Japanese viewers will agree with me especially if you consider the following true facts:-Being a "Korean" or of "Korean origin" in Japan during the wartime (and after) was a major handicap in the society, which caused many undesired problems-What made Choi Be dal, "Oyama" was the harsh treatment he endured from the (bad) Japanese as described in the movie. So not graphically illustrating this will miss the main point of the story-In the movie, Oyamas' nemesis Kato was not portrayed as a villain but someone with class, fairness and honor, if this movie is anti Japanese it wouldn't have been the case. -Oyama had "love and hate affair" with Japan. Yes, he didn't like many things Japanese but at the same time, as the movie shows it is a historical fact that he couldn't bear Japanese being mistreated by occupying (bad) American soldiers and defended them to a point he was on wanted list by the US military police. Ironically, years later during his visits to US, he was teaching Karate to FBI and introduced martial art to general American public.Overall, I find fighter in the wind well rounded except of the slight awkward, Korean soap opera style, romance scene with Aya Hirayama. Other wise, this movie is a must for all who are interested in martial arts!