SMALL, SLOW BUT STEADY

The English title seems to define the main character and at the same time the intentions and forms of this film. Small, Slow but Steady, this is how the young protagonist Keiko practices boxing, a sport for which she shows a beginning talent despite her deafness. But she is not a star, but a hard-working hotel employee who can barely get her life and her few personal relationships under control. Small, Slow but Steady is also the way the director unfolds his story and the lives of his characters. Although it is a story about athletes, there is no triumph, no big moments, but a subtle and detailed description of life in the Arakawa Boxing Gym as well as the city and houses in which the protagonists live. And Small, Slow but Steady is ultimately also the way in which the film's characters and locations seem to disappear in the face of a society increasingly interested in success and grandstanding. (Something we can of course also apply to the world of cinema). The director shows us his characters who are determined to get better day by day, but live in a world, a city, where the trains only seem to pass by. In the universe of filmmaker Shô Miyake and his protagonist Keiko, defeats are simply a part of life. Sung Moon