:
Minoru Kawasaki,
Koji Taguchi,
Miyako Kamohashi,
more...
:
Minoru Kawasaki
see all cast/crew...
: Pathfinder Home Ent.
: Comedies, Cult, Foreign, Slapstick, Japan, Screwball
: 86 min.
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An amphibious fighter takes on the world of wrestling in this offbeat comedy from Japan. Kogi Taguchi is a professional wrestler who, after years of struggle, has finally won the championship belt in a hard-fought match -- only to have the prize stolen from him moments later by a gigantic squid. Suddenly forced to defend his title against an eight-armed grappler, Kogi senses this is no ordinary battling squid, while his girlfriend Miyako finds herself strangely attracted to the aquatic brawler. As it happens, there's a semi-reasonable explanation for all this...Iwata, a wrestler who discovered he had only a short time to live, traveled to Pakistan, where rogue healers cured his malady by turning him into a mammoth squid. Can the eight-armed Iwata win fair and square in a legitimate rematch against Kogi? And can a guy with lots of grippers on his tentacles stand a chance at romance with a gal like Miyako? Calamari Wrestler was written and directed by Minoru Kawasaki, an independent filmmaker fond of describing himself as "Edward D. Wood Jr. with talent." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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| Slimy Stallone
by ZenBones
September 21, 2005 - 12:47 AM PDT
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4 out of 5 members found this review helpful
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| I suppose this is just your average good-vs-evil, boxing-wrestling, love-triangle, Buddhist seafood story, but having not seen many of those, I thought this was pretty good. I would have preferred that the movie featured Sumo wrestling as opposed to just plain old, regular wrestling but then, I guess there's nothing plain or regular about matches between giant cephalopods and crustaceans. Aside from our heroic squid there's a beet-red octopus, and a really mean lobster-type being (could it be a langostine? I need to bone up on my marine biology), all who claim to hail from - don't ask me why - Pakistan. Calamari is in fact a very loveable guy, and there are some terrific gags but I think the filmmakers could have done a lot more with the material. Calamari should have actually been slimy for example (he's about as slimy as your average leather sofa), and they should have put a lot more gags in (a rip-off the "Rocky" score might have been amusing). Still, it is pretty original and I think kids will enjoy this immensely. I hope there'll be a sequel - Calamari Bowling, Calamari Tennis, Calamari Roller Derby ... the possibilities are infinite. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.56)
16 Votes
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