Most boxing movies, on some level, are about characters finding themselves in the ring. “Dito,” actor-turned-director Takashi Yuki’s Philippines-set drama, takes this concept literally. The film’s title means “here” in Tagalog, but in the Japanese subtitles the word is often rendered as ibasho, which has a slightly different connotation: somewhere one belongs.
When 17-year-old Momoko (Momoko Tanabe) arrives in Manila in search of her father, Eiji (Yuki), bearing news that her mother has died, she finds him living a frugal existence in the city’s slums. He works as a window cleaner by day and seems to spend the rest of his time training at a local boxing gym in preparation for a fight offer that has yet to materialize. The younger initiates who share the space regard him with curiosity, referring to him as “that old Japanese guy,” which is fair enough. In terms of vintage, he’s Rocky Balboa circa “Rocky V.”