🎬 The Gentle Brawler

Director Adolf Zika, a former elite judoka with personal experience of the Japanese judo school, followed Lukáš Krpálek's career for more than fifteen years. He first filmed a documentary about his phenomenal career in 2016, when Lukáš Krpálek crowned his collection of all world titles in the up to 100 kg weight category with an Olympic gold medal. It seemed he could achieve nothing more, his path as a warrior could not have been more successful. But judo has one more royal category, the super heavyweight class above 100 kg, whose members completely overshadow ordinary individuals with their weight and strength. And this is precisely where the film begins to tell a sports story so improbable that in judo's long seventy-year competitive history no one has even mentioned it, let alone achieved it. In a relatively insignificant judo nation, someone was born in 1990 who managed to turn Japanese national pride upside down, who through his humility and respect uniquely changed the thinking of Japanese judo masters. The completely exceptional sports triumph of Lukáš Krpálek is told against the backdrop of thirteen years of the unknown story of former world champion and world number one Takamasa Anai. He was the first to experience firsthand what became a nightmare for Japanese judokas for years to come. At the London Olympics, during a single match with Lukáš Krpálek, he found himself on the brink of despair and hopelessness. The subsequent act of respect and humility, which Takamasa Anai resolved to perform after several years before the eyes of Japanese judo elites, took place at the Tokyo Olympics immediately after Lukáš's Olympic triumph in the heaviest royal category. That day a new history of this sport began to be written. The film features numerous legends of Japanese judo and significant contributions come from the testimonies of director and olympian Petr Jákl and actor and former elite judoka Ondřej Vetchý. The sincerity of Lukáš's mother about his childhood can positively influence the fate of many a troubled child and their parents. The participation of the Paris Olympics star, Teddy Riner, who lit the Olympic flame, ultimately gives the film a certain worldliness and appropriate weight. It is a film for anyone seeking inspiration in stories about the power of will and overcoming obstacles. It is a film that shows that true strength does not come from the size of muscles and the strength of tendons, but mainly from the setting of one's mind.