Kuro-Obi (Black Belt)
Taking place during Japans military period in 1932, the Imperial Army attempts to conquer a karate dojo named Shibahara Dojo. The dojo is headed by Eiken Shibahara(Yosuke Natsuki) and his three well trained students Taiken(Tatsuya Naka), Giryu(Akihito Yagi), and Choei(Yuji Suzuki). When Choei is injured by the unit captain, Taiken is angered and he challenges the soldiers inside the dojo.
After the soldiers are defeated, Eiken becomes ill and relinquishes his cherished black belt to Choei instructing him to find a worthy successor. By order of the military commander, the soldiers return to take the three students back to their headquarters to train the military. Due to a certain event, Giryu parts ways with the other two. While Giryu tries to follow his master's teachings which is not to use his skill for violence. Taiken however, chooses to follow his own ambition.-summary
I sometimes use to wonder would the art of Karate ever be taken completely serious in the world of film, and what I mean by this is: Would the art form ever become anything more than a high octane spectacle that's full of wire work, shoot outs, nonsensical events, and just completely be removed form the world of over the top fantasy altogether? Has anyone else ever felt like this? Well, unless you never practiced in the art form, and actually took it serious, then maybe not. However, to those out there who may have thought of it once or twice, and only thought of it as wishful thinking can finally rejoice. Here's a film that manages to go the character driven route and deliver an epic tale on the respected art form. The only film that I can think of which delivered on a certain level, would be the 1989 film Best of the Best directed by Robert Radler, but I don't think it quite measures up to this.
This is the way Karate should be portrayed, and to myself, along with many others, this is a true martial arts film. You will quite possibly hear everywhere you see a review on Black Belt aka Kuro Obi directed by Shunichi Nagasaki, being constantly referred to as: "the thinking man's martial art film.", and the film lives up to the claim in my view. I haven't witnessed too many martial art films crafted with such beauty. Everything meshes together with near perfection. One of the flaws I can think of, happens to be that those who actually trained in Karate will appreciate this film the absolute most. However, almost anyone can enjoy this film because I believe it to be that good.
Kuro-Obi (Black Belt)
