In last week's review of Yuya Ishii's "The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue," I wrote that poetry-based Japanese films are rare — but here seems to be another: Toshimitsu Iizuka's "Poetry Angel." One more example and I'll have a trend.
Made to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Tanabe Benkei Film Festival in Wakayama Prefecture, the film itself is not poetic. Instead it's a sweet-spirited, tug-at-the-heartstrings addition to that long list of local films about folks, young and not-so-young, finding their grooves through do-or-die competition in some sport or art.
This time the "sport" is poetry boxing, a real form of mano-a-mano verbal combat pitting two poets against each other, with judges deciding the winner. The dueling poets belong to five-person teams and the team that can grab the most individual victories wins.
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