Crying Fist

Crying Fist (주먹이 운다, 2005) is a Korean boxing drama directed by Ryoo Seung-wan — watch it online on iFILM. The film runs two storylines at once, both heading toward the same amateur tournament, and stars Choi Min-sik alongside Ryoo Seung-bum in performances that do most of the heavy lifting the script doesn't need to spell out.

Tae-sik was once a national silver medallist. Now he is past forty, broke from gambling, and his wife has taken their son and left. To scrape together cash he stands on the street and lets strangers punch him for money. It is as bleak as it sounds. Sang-hwan is barely twenty, fresh out of juvenile detention, and he joins a boxing gym because it is the only structure left in his life. Both men are fighting less for a trophy than for some proof they are still worth something.

Ryoo Seung-wan, who later directed action films like The Berlin File, keeps the fight sequences brutal and undecorated, but the 134-minute runtime is really about the cost of rebuilding a sense of self from scratch. The final bout earns every minute that came before it. Stream Crying Fist (2005) online on iFILM.