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Hiroshima University sumo club makes the big screen in Chanko
This seems to be Hiroshima's big year in the movies. In the spring we had the bigfoot drama Dear Hinagon, at the end of the month
Custom Made 10.30 which is centered around Okuda Tamio's sell out live show at Hiroshima's baseball stadium in 2004, but this weekend it is
Hiroshima University's turn in the spotlight. Chanko is a feature film based on the story of Hiroshima University's
sumo club is released locally on Saturday, and a national release is to follow in the near future.
The film is directed by Toshiki Sato who, one of the 'four kings of pink', is better known for his adult films such as
Empty Room and The Lost Virgin.
Chanko offers plenty of skin, but the naughty actors' naughty bits are well wrapped up in
mawashi.
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The club was formed in 1985. Fuelled by the
waka-taka boom
the 1990s saw a huge resurgence in mainstream interest in the ancient sport. The club placed well in university tournaments in 1996 and 1998.
In 2001, however, its membership had dropped to zero.
On the verge of extinction the club was saved by some female Hiro-dai students (women were
forbidden from soiling the sacred dohyo ring with their
presence until a shortage of male wrestlers during the second world war led to them being allowed to substitute in sumo ceremonies), and some skinny
international students.
Asahi.com quotes Sato as saying that it was that
it was foreigners and (Japanese) women who protected the Japanese national sport that captured his interest in the sport.
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How good the movie is we cannot say, but as it was filmed on location in Higashi Hiroshima City it is likely there'll be plenty of natsukashii
shots for Hiro-dai students past and present... oh, I threw up right there where they just ran by after the sake festival!
Chanko opens Oct 15 at Barto Wald 11 and T-Joy HigashiHiroshima.
October 2005 |
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