This is, despite the Brit character Smiley, a very Japanese film. What we see highlighted is a modern, substantially Westernised society where even the national sport of Sumo is under threat of abandonment.
The wrestling team is barely surviving, despite a not inglorious tradition at the school, and the standard and dedication of the remaining wrestlers is poor. The coach uses traditional techniques demanding humility and reinforcing every humiliation on his team. In keeping with this antique world view, the subtle and self-sacrificing love interest is very much a sub-text with a Yugen unveiling.
Unlike the locals who see it as a one-way street to oblivion as third-rate combatants in a system that ignores all else but the weight-gain demands of the sport and ultra-traditional costumes and ritual of the ring, the Smiley character sees it as an albeit brief flirtation from the inside with the hard-to-find 'real' old Japan. His flirtation, however, does not extend to dropping his duds and, despite real skill he opts to forfeit his bouts rather than expose himself to what he sees as ridicule. This puts the pressure on the real hero to perform miracles in the competition to prevent relegation of the school from the competition.
Being blackmailed into it would best describe the hero's reasons for joining the team, but he grows to admire what unrecognised work has been put into them by the coach and realises that the team exists only through the individual efforts of its members.
The wrestling team is barely surviving, despite a not inglorious tradition at the school, and the standard and dedication of the remaining wrestlers is poor. The coach uses traditional techniques demanding humility and reinforcing every humiliation on his team. In keeping with this antique world view, the subtle and self-sacrificing love interest is very much a sub-text with a Yugen unveiling.
Unlike the locals who see it as a one-way street to oblivion as third-rate combatants in a system that ignores all else but the weight-gain demands of the sport and ultra-traditional costumes and ritual of the ring, the Smiley character sees it as an albeit brief flirtation from the inside with the hard-to-find 'real' old Japan. His flirtation, however, does not extend to dropping his duds and, despite real skill he opts to forfeit his bouts rather than expose himself to what he sees as ridicule. This puts the pressure on the real hero to perform miracles in the competition to prevent relegation of the school from the competition.
Being blackmailed into it would best describe the hero's reasons for joining the team, but he grows to admire what unrecognised work has been put into them by the coach and realises that the team exists only through the individual efforts of its members.