Fighter in the Wind

Fighter in the Wind (Korean 바람의 파이터, Baramui paiteo) is a South Korean film by director Yang Yun-ho, which premiered on 12 August 2004. It tells loosely of the youth of the Korean Choi Bae-dal, known in Japan as Masutatsu Oyama, and of how he fought his way to a name in postwar Japan and laid the foundations of Kyokushin. It does not capture the founder's whole life; the end of the film refers to his later legends. According to Korean sources, the source was the comic Baramui paiteo by Bang Hak-gi, which ran in the daily Sports Seoul. English Wikipedia and some reviews name the Japanese manga Karate Baka Ichidai as the source; but that is a separate work about Oyama, and it does not appear as a source in Korean sources on the film. A large part of the film is spoken in Japanese. The lead role was originally to be played by the singer Rain; after delays it was taken over by Yang Dong-geun. In an interview the director said he does not want fake action but authentic movement, and he compared Choi Bae-dal to Wong Fei-hung as a hero of the era of Japanese domination. The fight against ten opponents from a dojo was shot at the Meiji Mura museum in Aichi Prefecture. In Korean cinemas the film was seen in 2004 by 2,346,446 viewers; the running time is 120 minutes.

Martial arts in this work

Fight choreography

According to Korean sources, the fight direction was led by Yang Kil-young and Lee Hong-pyo; according to the film's publisher, they consulted on the action style with Kim Kyung-hun, a Kyokushin representative in Korea. Some English reviews attribute the choreography to Jung Doo-hong, who plays Oyama's mentor Beom-su in the film; Korean sources do not name him as choreographer. Yang Dong-geun had not practised Kyokushin before. By his own account, before shooting he had only three to four days of training at the Busan branch of Kyokushin, got videos and books about Choi Bae-dal from the director, and during shooting lifted weights and trained kicks. According to him, rap and hip-hop dance gave him his flexibility.

Fact and fiction

The film adopts the legends that surround Oyama's biography. Oyama's pupils claimed that he fought 52 bulls; some of his former pupils later called this legend-building and said that one filmed video was staged. For the fight against a hundred opponents in a row (hyakunin kumite), to which the film refers at the end, we have not been able to find independent corroboration. According to Oyama's biographies he trained in seclusion in the mountains, fourteen months on Mount Minobu and then eighteen months on Mount Kiyosumi; other sources give about three years in total.

People and martial arts

• Masutatsu Oyamathe real person the work is about· Kyokushin (real practitioner)
• Yang Yun-hoDirector
• Yang Kil-youngAction director· Kyokushin
• Lee Hong-pyoAction director· Kyokushin
• Yang Dong-geunActor — as Choi Bae-dal· Kyokushin (portrays the art on screen)
• Kim Kyung-hunTechnical advisor· Kyokushin (real practitioner)