Yukino Kishii is a genius at striking the mitts, on par with Mayweather.
There have been many boxing movies made in the past, but the boxing scenes in this movie were really convincing. For example, the mitts are very impressive. Mr. Kishii, was it hard for you to practice?
Kishii:It wasn't hard, or rather, it was hard, but I really enjoyed it. At first I wondered what kind of motivation I had to hit what was in front of me, but the more I did it, the more I realized that boxing is a battle against myself. From that point on, I wanted to get stronger, not only for the film, but for Keiko (her character's name) and for myself anyway. I also felt that if I didn't become stronger here, I wouldn't be able to carry this film, so that part overlaps with Keiko's thoughts.
For example, as you can still see in the movie, it was really that look on my face when I was able to make a combination, and I loved the days when I was able to accomplish those small steps one by one. I still love boxing, and I was so fascinated by the sport that I still go to the boxing club whenever I have time.
Miyake:From my point of view, it is unbelievable that you are still doing it. For about a year after I cranked it up, I kept doing it just for health reasons and to see my trainer, Shinichiro Matsuura, but I felt like I was still playing Dracula, which I had already completed (laugh), and I started researching for my next film. . Anyway, I was able to discover this combination mitt. Anyway, the discovery of this combination mitt was very important for this film.
How did you discover this?
Miyake:Of course, some boxing exercises, even if they are meaningful as exercises, are difficult to convey their meaning on film. Shinichiro Matsuura, who played the role of my trainer, is a wonderful actor and boxing supervisor who helped me in many ways. As an amateur boxer, he carefully taught me various training methods, and I found those combination mitts. I used Floyd Mayweather's training as a reference for that one, but I didn't realize that Mr. Kishii was next to Mayweather, or as good as him (laughs).
Seiki Miura, who plays the other trainer, also has boxing experience, and the sound of him hitting the sandbag is amazing. However, Mr. Kishii is somehow faster and better with the combination mitts than Mr. Seiki. Mr. Kishii became better and better in the latter half of the session and exceeded Mr. Matsuura's imagination. In combination mitts, there are no set moves, and what Mr. Matsuura will do next is improvised on the spot. So, Mr. Matsuura would try to feint to make the mitts fail, but Mr. Kishii would succeed. Mr. Kishii watches the momentary movement of the muscles in your neck, doesn't he?
Kishii:Yes . In a state of nothingness, I only see this one point (the muscles in my neck).
Miyake:That was too awesome. I'm glad I discovered that scene and it was one of the keys to the film.
It's amazing that the practice scene is so interesting, isn't it?
Miyake:. probably because I was a complete novice. When I watched boxing movie practice scenes, I sometimes couldn't get through them because I didn't know what they were for and whether they were difficult or not. . So I was hoping that the training would be interesting to watch, and in some cases, I would want to try it myself, so I am glad that I was able to film that.
Kishii:I thought I was really good at what I did.
Miyake:If we had that championship, we'd be in first place (laughs).
Kishii:If it was that championship, I wouldn't lose, or I wouldn't want to lose (laughs).
