Fighter in the Wind
| Fighter in the Wind | |
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Poster for Fighter in the Wind
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| Hangul | |
| Revised Romanization | Baramui paiteo |
| McCune–Reischauer | Paramŭi p‘aiut‘ŏ |
| Directed by | Yang Yun-ho |
| Produced by | Jeon Ho-jin |
| Written by | Yang Yun-ho |
| Starring |
Yang Dong-geun Masaya Kato Aya Hirayama |
| Music by | Choi Man-shik |
| Cinematography | Shin Ok-hyeon |
| Edited by | Park Sun-deok |
| Distributed by | Big Blue Film |
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Release date
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Running time
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120 minutes |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | Korean Japanese |
| Budget | US$6,000,000 |
Fighter in the Wind (Korean: 바람의 파이터) is a 2004 South Korean film. It is based on the Japanese book Karate Baka Ichidai which is a fictionalized account of karate competitor Choi Yeung-Eui (최영의, 崔永宜) who went to Japan after World War II to become a fighter pilot but found a very different path instead. He changed his name to Masutatsu Oyama (大山倍達) and went across the country, defeating martial artists one after another. This film concentrates on the period when he is still young, and developing his famous karate style, Kyokushin. The film was the seventh highest grossing Korean film of 2004 with 2,346,446 admissions sold nationwide.
At the tail-end of World War II, Choi Bae-dal is a young Korean man who longs to be able to fly fighter planes. Stowing away to Japan in order to join their air force, Bae-dal's first experience of the country is when a con-man tries to steal his money. Bae-dal discovers that the man is a fellow Korean called Chun-bae (Jung Tae-woo), who has survived the harsh treatment of Koreans in Japan by turning to petty crime. With their different motives: Bae-dal driven by desire for action and Chun-bae needing to escape from some gangsters, the two Koreans stow away in a truck to the air force training camp.
The commander in charge of the camp is a pompous imperialist called Kato (Masaya Kato). Having mistreated the two Koreans, he is amused by Bae-dal's fighting spirit and says that if Bae-dal can beat him with his inferior "foreign" fighting style, he will release them. The two men fight with Kato easily defeating Bae-dal, but an American attack on the airforce base allows Bae-dal and Chun-bae to escape.
Later, Bae-dal is found helping Chun-bae to run a pachinko stall in a Japanese market place. When local gangsters try to take protection money from Chun-bae, Bae-dal tries to defend him but is beaten up and humiliated by the gangsters. His ordeal is ended by the intervantion of Bum-soo (Jung Doo-hong), a martial arts expert from his home town who had also emigrated to Japan. Bum-soo invites Bae-dal back to the circus where he, and many fellow Korean immigrants, work and where he is attempting to build a decent standard of living for his countrymen. After some persuasion, he agrees to teach Bae-dal some of his more sophisticated fighting style.
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