There's just something inspirational for me about sports movies. They're usually about perseverance through adversity, about developing and honing discipline, about harnassing whatever demons might drive you.

Ashita no Joe has joined my favorites list of sports movies, ranking up there with We Are Marshall, Invincible, Glory Road, Cinderella Man, Your Eyes Tell, and Buzzer Beat. The haters can say what they will about Tomohisa Yamashita, but he gave a pretty outstanding performance, the way he always does. He will never be a hugely emotive actor. Subtlety is how he performs and it works for him, just like it did here. But I think the performer who really stood out is Iseya Yusuke as Rikiishi. I connected with his character on a deep level. To go that extra mile of crazy to participate in a fight, to lose that much weight, to train that much and for so long for that one fight with that one guy, that's the dedication that only athletes can understand on an intimate level. I didn't want either of them to lose in that fight, that's how invested I was in both of them. Hats off to Tomo and Yusuke for whatever amazing training they underwent for this film. It paid off, in spades.

As far as the characters are concerned, Joe's interesting in that I didn't always like him. He felt like a one-trick pony with his counter-punch. It felt like a cheap gimmick done only for show. Which considering Joe's arrogant nature, it probably was. But he finally manned up at the end and fought what felt like a real fight, finally becoming a true boxer, or at least starting down the road to becoming one. Whereas once I got to know Rikiishi better, once he started training in earnest, I really liked him. He just seemed like an all-around good guy, and a much more well-balanced man emotionally than Joe who was all hyper with bitterness and angst.

If you love serious sports dramas, particularly boxing dramas, then you'll probably enjoy Ashita no Joe. Romance had no place in this movie and I'm glad because it would have seriously detracted from the story. In the end, in spite of my being a huge Tomohisa Yamashita fan, anyone could have played Joe and I still would have loved the movie. It's awesome that he's in it, but that's how much I loved the story, that it didn't hinge on a certain actor playing the lead role.