User reviews

I believe that this is one of the best movies to come out Korea in along time. It has got heart and soul and you can see that the director and the cast really care about bringing to life this story of one of the greatest martial artist in history. However despite how much I enjoyed this film there were a few flaws.

First some emotional parts in the story moves to fast and there are scenes f Korean and Japanese customs (such as shaving his eyebrows) that we don't understand and we are not given an explanation to. Another thing is that some moments of this movie are incredibly exxagerated and some are just made up for the movie. I don't understand why they did this since Oyama Mas had an amazing life without all the made up scenes.

Last is the action, I hear that most people didn't like the action because the fight scenes were short and brutal. However because I do martial arts and know a lot about Oyama Mas I believe that this was the right way for the movie. This is because Oyama never did any soft kungfu which you see in most movies these days, He did hard taekwondo and later created kyokushin karate and he always tried to finch his opponent with one punch. combat is not a dance where you can predict each other movements.

One major problems I had with this movie is the almost utter lack of character development. The protagonist has very little conversation that reveals his thoughts. Instead the director focuses on his determination, which is shown soley through actions, rather than words that might provoke a deeper understanding of the character. To sum up my knowledge of the characters: Baedal wants to be the best fighter, his best friend is a goof, and the bad guy is harsh and hates Baedal. Thats about as deep as it gets. Slight exagerration, but you see what I mean (and I do mean SLIGHT).

The second shortcoming was Baedal's transformation to a great fighter. For the most part is was glossed over and unrewarding. We get a glimpse of the brutal training he endured, and then miraculously he is like a whole different fighter. When this movie is about the transformation from an average fighter to the "best" in Japan, I expect a little more than that.

Lastly I have to knock it down a point for the style of the film. It seems like during some fights they decided to arbitrarily add in special effects. These detract from the movie, especially because the rest of the movie is not stylized in that manner (Kill Bill for example). Also, some of the sets and characters/costumes seemed a little cheesy, making me think it was a relatively low budget film. Not what I would expect for a movie from 2004.

The disappointing part of this movie is really that they could have done a lot better. The story itself has plenty of interesting aspects that are great for a movie. However, the way they chose to present was just plain dull, largely due to the reasons I have expressed above. While I was watching, it gave me the attitude, "Oh, hes gonna fight this guy, maybe it will be cool", "Okay, this is boring, when is the next fight?." And its not at all because I'm obsessed with fighting, its because the scenes between fights were really lacking.

If you want to see a great coming of age/martial arts movie about determination and deep characters, I recommend "Once Upon A Time in High School". It has everything that this movie lacked.

I watched this movie the other night, but i found it quite enjoyable. While I will agree that though there are enough fights, they aren't nearly long enough. But the length of the fight isn't what makes them good, it's how well they're done with the time given. Like if you're going to throw a punch at someone, but stop yourself only centimeters from your target, proving to everyone that you have defeated him and he was powerless to stop you, well that is pure quality right there. I loved the main character. He willingly put himself through hell with his training, and became one of the most focused and determined fighters i've ever seen in a movie The story wasn't the best, but i still found this movie fun

i cant believe the comments made about this movie!this has to be Korea's best output in the martial arts genre since musa!!the fights certainly pull no punches you can hear heads and bones crunching!!i suggest you take another look and as you will see this a fine movie!!acting is good,the locations brilliant as the camera takes you around ghetto's to the wondrous scenes in the mountains,the training he puts him self through would make rocky balboa blush!!!the ice climb is excellent,you also get a feel for the period,this guy took no prisoners i can tell you,don't be put off from some reviews see this as a ruff n tumble session of extreme!!the last shot has to be seen to be believed!!!10/10 for a real gem of the martial arts kind!!!

I was impressed and satisfied with Fighter In The Wind. Most martial arts movies tend not to be very serious, but in terms of grit and realism, this was one of the few martial arts movies that maintained complete seriousness throughout.

Apparently, it is biographical of a real karate master, which I didn't realize until the end. It is also apparently based on a comic book version of the story, which in hindsight is easy to see in the colorful and visually well-arranged cinematography. Many different environments, landscapes and buildings are encountered in the course of the story, and they are all beautifully presented. The director is a master at his craft.

Baedal's geisha girlfriend, played by Aya Hirayama, is absolutely stunningly beautiful, and the movie is worth watching just for her. But it is a good movie in its own right, with a good portrayal of the Korean minority in Japan just after World War II. Although parts of the story and characters lack depth, I do find the movie generally satisfying, except in one respect: As the other commentators point out, it doesn't have a great deal of fighting, and the fights it does have are brief and relatively unimpressive - all the more so because Baedal apparently doesn't use any specific style. It doesn't ring true, either, that he gets to challenge every kind of martial arts school, from karate to judo and others. Would such schools accept challenges from someone with such an unspecific fighting style? I doubt it. But, I'm no expert on this.

In any case, despite these flaws, I think the overall style of the movie is very well made, and I enjoyed it a lot. I'd definitely recommend it to any fan of martial arts and action movies.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

I was pretty excited when this hit theaters. There was a lot of buzz floating around about it being the next great martial arts film. Unfortunately, for everything it does right, it does equal wrong.

For starters, this is a martial arts film, so you would assume there would be lots of fighting. And there is fighting, just not all that much. Most of the film is littered with lengthy dialogue scenes that are intended to deepen the characters, but this fails as well. Character motivation seems to be limited to "spur of the moment" reasoning and the ultimate plot is nothing more than standard fight-film fare (boy gets beat up a lot, boy trains, boy beats up everybody).

This isn't to say that the film doesn't have some positive aspects. The film is gorgeous; color, cinematography, lighting, all handled with expert flare. As for the fights (when the film gets around to them), they are excellent. Eskewing the modern trend penchant for treating fights like elaborate dance sequences, here instead we get some real hard-hitting brawls that also maintain a look of grace.

If only the filmmakers had put as much effort into the writing as they did into the look of the film, this could easily have been one of the top martial art films, instead of mild entertainment destined to be forgotten.

Score: 6/10

'Paramui Paito (Fighter in the Wind) is based on the events in the life of legendary Korean martial artist Choi Bae-dal. Or more precisely, the film is based on the comic book based on the martial artist's life _ a difference that can be felt throughout this entertaining but factually suspect movie.

The first of a handful of local films about famous Koreans who lived during the Japanese occupation period, ''Fighter in the Wind tells of the early part of Choi¡¯s life, how he sneaked into Japan in the late 1930s in hopes of becoming a pilot, joined the martial arts community there, and after training by himself in the mountains for 18 months, came down to become the top fighter of that country.

The film offers a seemingly sentimentalized version of the same story, especially playing up the outsider aspect of Choi's experiences, of his being a Korean in Japanese society. Given the story's xenophobic elements, which include evil yakuzas exploiting Koreans, it will be interesting to see how a Japanese audience responds to the film when it gets released there as planned.

''Fighter¡¯s best moments hint at the moral complexity of films like ''Raging Bull,¡¯¡¯ Martin Scorcese¡¯s boxing masterpiece. At first, Choi¡¯s motivation to become Japan¡¯s best seems to be connected to righting injustices felt by Koreans in Japan, but as he travels to martial arts schools enduring punishment after punishment, it becomes less clear as to what he is trying to prove.

But such insights are all too brief in the film, which is so heavy on the melodrama and action that it's difficult to take too seriously. By the end, the story resembles a kung fu film from Hong Kong, complete with a geisha girlfriend (Ara Hirayama), who tries to turn Choi into a lover not a fighter, and elder statesmen of the Japanese martial arts community who will go to any lengths to keep a Korean from becoming Japan's best. It's not the most inventive of plots, but the film keeps it entertaining throughout.

Singer and actor Bi (Rain) was initially cast for the lead role of Choi but had to pull out due to schedule conflicts. It¡¯s a good thing too, for the rail-thin pop singer wouldn¡¯t have been able to take the physical punishment the role required.

Instead, we get Yang Dong-geun, a burly actor who plays the part to near perfection. It¡¯s refreshing to see this young and talented actor take on a substantial role for a change, and he brings to ''Fighter the necessary savagery and physical presence to make it work.

A romanticised biopic of karate legend Mas Oyama (here called "Choi Baedal") this is rare gem in Korean cinema and the genre of martial arts films. As many reviewers have mentioned, the fight scenes in this movie are shorter and more brutal than the average Hong Kong action film, but this is easily forgiven as the quality of the film-making is so high. Most people watching martial arts movies will find themselves dozing through the story waiting for the next fight, but the good storytelling, quality acting, beautiful cinematography and stylish editing make the story elements of "Fighter in the Wind" a pleasure to watch.

The cast all seem perfectly at home in their roles, making it easy to love or hate the characters as required. Dong-kun Yang plays Baedal with the right mix of naive idealism and hard-headed brutality. The stunning Aya Hirayama provides a likable love-interest. Taewoo Jeong is charming as Baedals cheeky con-man friend Chunbae, and Masaya Kato is suitably arrogant and superior as old-fashioned karate master Kato.

This may be a film based around martial arts, but it is not a typical martial arts movie. The story features some spectacular fighting techniques from the surprisingly acrobatic Yang, but the fighting is an embellishment to an otherwise fascinating and well-told story rather than the focus of the movie.

Fighter in the Wind is a Corea-produced martial arts biopic about Masutatsu Oyama (born Choi Baedal), the ethnically Corean founder of Kyokushin karate. I actually went into this film bracing for the worst kind of nationalism that I often expect from Corean film when dealing with Japan, but was pleasantly surprised at how subdued it was. In addition to some limited, but kinetic fight sequences, Fighter in the Wind ends up being a mostly satisfying, if limited, portrait of a prominent figure of the martial arts world.

The fictionalized story covers the early portion of Oyama's life in Japan. While history shows that Oyama had actually trained in two schools of karate before developing his own technique, I imagine that much of the actual of events of his life were elided for both running time as well as nationalistic purposes, in re-centering Oyama as a Corean (perhaps to appeal to the Corean movie-going populace). In addition to watching Baedal/Oyama get beat up, beat people up and become a total badass, we also watch him make friends with another ethnic Corean (the vice-ridden best friend), develop a relationship with a Japanese woman, get schooled by a Zainichi karate instructor/circus troupe guard, and spend a chunk of time brutally training in solitude in the mountains.

The film follows a rather unsurprising approach that you can find in many martial arts films, following the hero's journey as he starts from a scrapping fighter, who gets beaten, learns and trains with a master and learned to use his skills for good and not selfish ambition, is forced to fight to protect someone, beats the big bad in the end. Yeah, totally formulaic since this film mostly fits the basic formula, but like many films before it, it works. You see the growth of Baedal/Oyama's character, you see his victory from rather rough beginnings and how he changes the lives of those around him. Basic biopic/hero-film stuff. But it's pretty well executed, so although it's nothing that's going to amaze you, at the same time, the character remains interesting enough to keep your attention, like any biopic. Unfortunately, most of the Japanese villains are painted with a rather broad near-mustache-twirling brush, so if you're looking for complexity in your story-telling, you won't find it here.

The fight scenes, while not plentiful, are kinetic and hard hitting, especially the montage as Oyama takes on school after school of Japan's elite fighters. It's fun to watch the different martial arts interact and it's hard not to root for Oyama's practical underdog style. Photography is pretty good, adapting to the different dramatic material well, while still seeming cohesive and the film doesn't tank in terms of sonic presentation. The acting was overall good, although sometimes I felt like Yang Donggun, who played Oyama, had a rather limited character to work with, but he still seemed to embody that rather simple determination with his posture, even if I had a hard time believing that his body was one of a brutally effective fighter.

I still have some issues with the probably nationalistically motivated fictionalizations to Oyama's life and the rather obvious bad-guy characterizations of the antagonists, but in terms of an engaging biopic, Fighter in the Wind actually manages to make it out okay--if you like martial arts. It's no visionary work of art, but a rather modestly put together biopic that tells the story of a man whose determination and courage led to greatness. These things work for a reason and Fighter didn't screw it up, even if it did nothing astounding. Good for martial arts fans and probably passable for everyone else. 7/10.

This is a typical Korean movie with full of anti-Japan sentiment and lies. Choi Bae-dal was so-called "chinilpa" (pro-Japanese traitor), who loved Japanese martial arts and got Japanese name and nationality. He practiced Shotokan-karate and Gojyu-Ru karate, not Korean martial arts or Tekkyon.

Because Koreans don't like to admit that they learned many Japanese cultures during the colonial period, they have distorted the history as if the origin of all Japanese cultures was in Korea. Korea's Taekwondo association has made similar distortion and hided the truth that karate was the origin of Korea's national martial arts.

When Choi Bae-dal was alive, he pretended to be Japanese. He never used his Korean name "Choi Bae-dal" in Japan and wrote some books in which he described himself as if he was patriotic Japanese. However, because he made a success in Japan, Koreans have created the image of nationalistic anti-Japan hero of him in comic and movie.

This movie must be feel –good victorious story for Koreans. Anti-Japan movies in which Koreans defeat Japanese occupy one of the major categories in Korean movies. The producer says it is based on true story. Yes. Choi Bae-dal existed and he founded Kyokushin-karate. It is true. But the other story is just a fantasy. Nothing more.

OK, first things first; this is NOT a martial arts kung-fu beat em up movie (If you want that, go watch Ong-Bak!). Throw those expectations OUT and prepare to enjoy a very gripping action/drama with some of the most beautiful filmwork i've seen in a while. To keep it simple, this movie is very exaggerated biography of Choi Baedal (Later changed his name to Mas Oyama), founder of Kyokushin karate, starting from before WW2. The fight scenes are not like standard kungfu flicks. They don't fight for 5 minutes. It's realistic in this sense. They trade a few blows and one or the other falls down in severe pain. This movie screams of a comic book feel. Fight scenes are stopped in mid-action to emphasize the form and the impact of the blows, the color and framing of each shot is reminiscent of comics as well. It emphasizes Choi Baedal's super-heroish qualities. The storyline is very interesting, although it runs a little long. Overall, its a very beautiful film to watch. Its great to see a movie really focus on the philosophies and ideas of martial arts rather than just the fighting itself. It also deals with the fears mindset of a fighter. Its VERY sad, and can sometimes come off as corny, but the overall emotional impact is there. Watch it, and remember, its NOT a pure kung fu beat em up movie and you will enjoy it.

"Baramui Fighter" is a very well done biopic of the Korean national hero Choi Bae Dal who was one of the best martial arts fighters in the whole world and who has gone through loads of hard times as being a part of the Korean minority in Japan that has been shattered by the Second World War and the following cruel occupation by American soldiers and the slow return to form of the country.

The movie surely idealizes a little bit too much the main character with this homage and the story reserves not many surprises. A poor Korean boxer gets in trouble with local authorities, isolates himself in the mountains after the tragic assassination of his idol and comes back to become the country's best fighter before he realizes that there are more important things than fighting for its own honour. The story includes some philosophic parts, a typical but very well played subtle love story and a load of breathtaking fighting scenes.

It's not only the solid acting or the very well done but not outstanding fighting scenes that make this movie quite entertaining but the authentic portrait of the hard life in Japan after the war. The scenes in the poor quarters of a big Japanese city including gang fights, conflicts with brutal local authorities and an emotional melting pot of honour, identity and passion that are questioned make this movie very addicting. Especially the first forty-five minutes or so of the movie are great to watch, the rest is your solid standard martial arts flick.

In the end, anybody interested in Japanese and Korean culture and history might highly adore this movie. Martial arts fan will also like this well done film. Those who like the more emotional and philosophic parts might give this movie some credits but might claim that it could have been more profound. This flick is clearly better than many recent Chinese and Japanese martial arts movies but it can't keep up with the classics of the genre.

Note that the very diversified soundtrack of the movie from tradition folk music o symphonic metal came as a positive surprise to me.

This is based on true story of a Korean man. He has been legendary in Korea for long. It responded very well to the expectation of the Koreans who have known about him. He has established a new branch of Gongsudo(Karate in Japanese). It is perhaps one of the most successful martial arts branches in the world. He shows quite typical Korean spirit through his life and the movie showed it well. Good job. i will watch it again when I have time. I recommend Americans who are interested in martial arts.

Why does this have to have 10 lines? So annoying.

The best part of the movie to me is when he went to apologize the black clothes sword man's wife. There he sees this boy who is about 10. Whether it is fiction or not, I think it has some touching effect. A fine martial artist must have fine mind and kind heart. Professionals know when to fear. He knows it so well and so honest about it.

yeah I love this movie first for its great and powerful acting by the main actor playing Choi, and as well it makes me think that Choi is a real person and everything you see in that movie is all true and actually happened around WW2. The Story is very serious, and isn't like most martial arts movies mainly because its based on a true story, which gives it its serious feel. the fighting scenes in it are so different from other martial arts movies which i find good in this movie, i think if you're karate practitioner like me, u'll get a better understanding of the different fight system in this movie as some people didn't favour it because they looked at the movie as an actually fictional martial arts story, wen its actually based on a real man and real events, a man who could eliminate him opponent in one punch and karate chop a bulls horn off.

The actual man (Choi Baedel) or as his Japanese name which is Masutastu Oyama, Went through hard intense training on a mountain away from the public, all by himself for 4 years, but only stayed there for 18 months, going back to the public he fought the worlds greatest fighters some only defeating them in one single punch after there was no human opponent who could match up to his amazing fighting power, he started fighting bulls mainly defeating them by karate chopping the bulls horns, if I can remember Masutatsu Oyama fought 55 bulls in his life time, killing 11 of them and knocking the rest out. Because of his powerful karate chop/strike he was named the "God Hand" as well as the USA called him "The most toughest man in the word" This movie portrays his first part of success as the worlds toughest fighter greatest martial artist ever lived. I Say read about this man first then watch the movie to give You more more of an idea of what he has been through.

Action: Before I watched the whole movie, I saw a short clip of a spectacular fight scene from this movie and I thought if the whole movie had scenes like that, this movie could be pretty cool. Unfortunately, that cool scene that I saw doesn't happen until the end of the movie and it was rather short. The rest of the fights were even shorter. Some good moments of action here and there, but generally nothing as good as the fight at the end, which didn't last long

General complaints: I usually like martial arts movies, but found this one to be not very enjoyable, even an uncomfortable experience to watch - partly because watching people treating each other badly, which is almost all that happens in this movie, is no fun, but also because the main character is not likable and his behavior makes no sense. For instance, right from the start, he's Korean, but goes to Japan during the WWII era to become a fighter pilot, which doesn't work out for him, because of course they don't let him become a fighter pilot. But why in the world did he think this was a good idea in the first place? Join the country that's devastating his own? Willingly go to a place where they don't like him? I'm already confused. Then for the rest of the movie, he's a jerk to his friends, yet overly respectful to his enemies. I didn't understand the guy at all.

There have been a few adaptations of the life and work of Mas Oyama, the Korean born martial arts master and founder of the infamously tough as nails Kyokushin Karate style. The better ones having starred Sonny Chiba, one of Oyama's actual personal students. It's no secret that stories of his feats and life have always been embellished to say the least, sometimes by the man himself so this is new version is no exception, however it goes so far in distorting his real biography as to be almost completely unrecognizeable. The term "based on a true story" has to do a lot of heavy lifting here.

It's no secret that Korea and Japan have a lot of historical baggage, with the latter having often done a rather bad job at acknowledging past wrongdoings, so the anti-japanese bias portrayed here isn't surprising, it's however an absolute disservice to the man this story is supposedly based on. Ironically the real life story of Mas Oyama is one of understanding, respect and synergy between these two cultures. Even without knowing that fact, the plot devices at play here are just beyond tired and cliche by themselves. By the end the plot eventually becomes so ridiculous that it fully leaves the realms of reality. There are 70s Shaw brothers productions that show more restraint.

A lot of genuine martial arts classics have problematic, even jingoistic undertones and themes so this could be forgiven if the movie were any good. Unfortunately it comes across more like an alright tv drama with cheap sets and mediocre acting. There is theoretically some great martial arts talent involved but very little of it is shown and the film meanders too much between story threads that lead nowhere, at a snail's pace to boot. The less is being said about the music the better.

As just a film it's unengaging and surprisingly amateurish, as an adaptation of a real person it is rather problematic, so I suggest avoiding it altogether. If you're still curious just watch the fight scenes on Youtube and save yourself 90 minutes of filler.

I'm not sure why this film ever got any international attention whatsoever. It came out at a time when South Korea started to establish itself as a major player in quality cinema, a role it carries to this day, so I assume international distributors were looking for the next big thing after Oldboy and Memories of Murder made such a splash. South Korea can do so much better than this though, especially in the action and drama genres. Compared to its contemporaries like Hyeongsa, Cheonnyeonho or the aforementioned Oldboy it falls completely flat, not to mention epics like Hwal that came after it.

To be quite honest, I didn't know anything about this film before I had purchased it. In fact, I had only bought it for two reasons. The first was that I knew it was a martial arts film and two, because it featured Masayo Kato, who appears in a few movies that I happen to like. However, by the time I had finished watching the movie, I had to admit that it exceeded my expectations for a few reasons. For instance, it had some drama, which most martial arts films tend to lack; the picture quality was superb; and above all, it was an autobiographical sketch based on a real life martial arts master.

I won't go over the story, as I'm sure that a few other people had already given it away anyway. But to those who have criticized the film on the basis that it was "boring" just because the fights were too quick and not very well choreographed, I think it's important for them to acknowledge the fact that this was based on a true story. Most fights really did end relatively quick because of Choi Bae-dal's lethal blows. In fact, it was said that most fights between him and his opponents did not last more than three minutes, while other matches ended with only single blows coming from one of Bae-dal's kicks or punches.

Needless to say, I did enjoy the film as I've already emphasized above and was glad that I saw it for another reason: because I would not have embraced Bae-dal's depicted character with the same respect that I currently have for the other great martial arts legends, the likes of which include Musashi, Bruce lee, Wong Fei Hong, et al.

8 out of 10

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!

I decided to watch this movie after reading the reviews. If you know the story of Miyamoto Musashi and his journey to find the way, then this movie will speak volumes.

If you haven't read the story of Musashi, I recommend you go look for Eiji Yoshikawa and read about this man, the myth the legend, Miayamoto Musashi who inspired our hero, Baedal.

Great movie.

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.