This would be the first film I’ve watched by director Masaharu Take and it’s pretty hard to decide what genre it belongs in. Its Wikipedia page describes it as a sports drama but while it has boxing, it’s not really about boxing. My wife suggests that it’s a love story but that’s not entirely right. In the end, I think that this is a film about people just don’t quite fit right in society and so this film too doesn’t feel like a perfect fit in any genre.

32-year old Ichiko is something of a hikikomori. She seemingly does nothing productive, sleeps in all day and plays video games, refusing to help in the family’s shop. When her recently divorced elder sister moves back in with her son, they frequently fight and eventually her mother kicks her out. Ichiko finds a cheap flat to stay in and takes up a job in a convenience store to support herself. She does seem to have a fascination with boxing and while walking often stops to look at a boxing gym. This catches the attention of one of the regulars there, a man named Yuji and they awkwardly date. Though she clearly likes him their relationship proceeds only in fits and starts as at first one of her coworkers, a middle-aged man, falsely claims that she is already involved with her, and later Yuji becomes attracted to a prettier. Ichiko signs up to learn boxing to vent her frustrations and soon dedicates all of her time and effort to it.

Lead actress Sakura Ando deserves praise here for bravely taking on a role that requires her to look, while not exactly ugly, certainly unattractive and very unflattering. It’s not just about having a plain face with no makeup and bad hair. She adopts a hunched posture and sits in a very un-ladylike manner. Surrounding her character are other social misfits. The lecherous middle-aged co-worker for example who aggressively pushes himself onto her and seems to believe that a girl like her should be glad for the attention, a former employee of the store who has fired for stealing but still comes around everyday for discarded food and probably is mentally ill. Even Yuji is a loser, having failed at being a boxer and thus gave up entirely. We often see underdogs as the subjects of films of course but the usual outcome is that they win out in the end. But that’s not what 100 Yen Love is about. It’s about losers who continue to lose for whatever reason. It’s disconcerting to watch this at first but no one can deny that not everyone can be winners in life.

It can take a while to understand what the film is trying to do however especially with a protagonist who at first seems so unlikeable. I admire how the film never stumbles nor wavers in its championing of the mediocre. When Ichiko gets serious with her boxing training, we get the usual training montage we’re all familiar with ever since Rocky. We’re all duly impressed by her determination and of course it’s also satisfying to watch her family members realize, with some horror, just how far she is willing to go. But I also love that when the elderly owner of the gym advises her that she’s too old for serious competition and that getting punched hurts, he isn’t being condescending. He’s speaking from experience. Working and training hard is great but other people can work and train hard too.

It would all too easy for a film like to fall too far into tragedy but that never happens here either. The losers aren’t doing great but they still manage to cling on. The Japanese rock song at the end of the film captures this perfectly, singing about the anger and frustration of never getting to be the winners. It would be patronizing to tell the mediocre to just suck it up and keep going so the film never does so. But it does remind you for every winner in life, with money, great career, the admiration of society and so on, there are plenty of losers, so why one film as a paean to them.