“Underdog,” the two-part boxing film that opens the 33rd Tokyo International Film Festival, is the second movie on the subject by director Take Masaharu.
The first, “100 Yen Love” in 2014 won the Japanese Cinema Splash Award at the 27th TIFF and was selected as Japan’s nominee for Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award.
Take was also supervising director on the hit Netflix series “The Naked Director.”You had a big success with “100 Yen Love.” Is boxing a genre you have a special affection for?Take: Boxing movies like “Rocky” and “Raging Bull” were interesting to me when I saw them as a kid.
I love them as films, but they’re tough to make.
I’ve had enough.
(laughs) I don’t think I have a particular aptitude for them.The training must have been tough for your three leads, Moriyama Mirai, Kitamura Takumi and Katsuji Ryo.Take: It was tough.
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