‘Small, Slow But Steady’ Review: Tender Heartbreaker of a Boxing Movie Scores a Knockout Without Punching Hard
variety.comGuy Lodge Film CriticNot since Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 silent “The Ring” has there been a boxing film quite so quiet as “Small, Slow But Steady,” a gentle but hard-edged study of a flyweight female pugilist in suburban Tokyo.
More concerned with the wear and tear of everyday life than pummeling sound and fury, director Shô Miyake’s measured, unsentimental adaptation of a memoir by Keiko Ogasawara — who turned professional despite the difficulties of lifelong deafness — turns out to be somewhat aptly described by its own title, though none of those adjectives quite conveys its rare and delicate grace.
A highlight of the Encounters program at this year’s Berlinale, this unassuming gem should turn the heads of specialist distributors and further festival programmers, despite its general avoidance of crowd-courting tactics.
In adapting Ogasawara’s book “Makenaide!” — which translates, with an imperative urgency the film doesn’t share, as “Do Not Lose!” — Miyake and co-writer Masaaki Sakai have semi-fictionalized their subject as Keiko Ogawa, played with stern, clenched intensity by actor Yukino Kishii.
Read more on variety.com