A Normal Life: Chronicle of a Sumo Wrestler

Directed by Jill Coulon

55 minutes / Color
English; Japanese / English subtitles
Release: 2017
Copyright: 2009

 
At the age of 18, Takuya is driven by his father and his sponsors to leave his hometown in Hokkaido, Japan, to go to Tokyo and joins a troupe of sumo wrestlers. There, he will share everything with the ten other athletes: day-to-day life, training, social life, and sumo wrestling tournaments.

Co-produced by Japanese TV NHK as part of its "Tokyo Modern" series, A NORMAL LIFE: CHRONICLE OF A SUMO WRESTLER follows the first nine months of Takuya's initiation and training.

Other Ways to Watch

Colleges, Universities, Government Agencies, Hospitals, and Corporations
This title is available for streaming only.

Available for educational streaming from:

Select Accolades

  • Special Jury Mention, Flahertiana International Film Festival
  • Best First Film, MiradosDocs Film Festival
  • Special Jury Prize, Evreux Festival of Educational Film
  • Visions du Reel Film Festival

RELATED TITLES

A visually stunning film about modern Japanese architecture, its roots in Japanese tradition, and their relationships to modernist Scandinavian design. With two Pritzker Prize winners, Tadao Ando and Sverre Fehn.

Jesper Wachtmeister | 2006 | 53 minutes | Color | Japanese; Finnish | English subtitles

Bored teenagers and disillusioned adults rage at each other and the emptiness of life in frost-bitten northern China.

LI Hongqi | 2010 | 91 minutes | Color | English; Mandarin | English subtitles