Netflix series explores women’s dreams in the body-slamming world of Japanese pro wrestling

TOKYO (AP) — “The Queen of Villains” is a typical coming-of-age story a few younger lady’s street to empowerment and self-discovery — besides all of it takes place within the body-slamming, arm-twisting world of Japanese skilled wrestling.

The Netflix collection, which started airing final month, tells the story of Dump Matsumoto, a real-life wrestling legend from the Nineteen Eighties who grew up poor with a father who was typically absent or abusive.

Matsumoto grew up offended, she mentioned, and went on to create in her wrestling persona a ferocious, virtually camp villain character, recognized within the sport as a “heel,” full with outlandish Kabuki-like facial make-up, chains, sticks and a grotesque scowl. She loomed massive as a logo of fearless and defiant womanhood.

“I gave it my all to be evil,” Matsumoto mentioned.

A hefty lady with a pleasant smile, Matsumoto makes a degree even now to adamantly deny that she was ever a pleasant individual or acknowledge that many individuals in Japan, particularly girls, love her.

“I nonetheless beat folks up in matches. I caught forks in them and made them bleed,” she mentioned, including, “All of the individuals who fake to be good are the really evil ones.”

“The Queen of Villains” follows the friendship between Matsumoto and Chigusa Nagayo of the favored wrestling tag group often called the Crush Gals. Nagayo served as an adviser, coach and choreographer for the collection’ dramatized wrestling scenes.

Japanese skilled wrestling followers nonetheless discuss in regards to the matches between Matsumoto and the Crush Gals, together with those they fought within the U.S.

The actresses within the collection spent two years coaching for his or her roles. They gained weight and muscle, and realized strategies just like the “large swing,” during which a wrestler grabs her opponent’s legs and strikes in a dizzying circle, or the “flying knee kick,” which entails a soar and kick to the physique whereas airborne.

The trick in skilled wrestling is to execute the punches and physique slams convincingly however in a managed method to keep away from critical accidents. A wrestler additionally should know the way to fall correctly.

One key combat scene took a month to movie because the actors went over every transfer, repeatedly.

“Dump performed a job to be hated by your complete nation,” mentioned Yuriyan Retriever, an expert comic who stars as Matsumoto within the collection.

“Beforehand, there was a restrict, perhaps even unintentionally, past which I couldn’t go. However once I performed Dump, all these feelings needed to come out and be expressed,” she mentioned.

She felt like she was now not taking part in a job, she mentioned, however that she had grow to be Dump Matsumoto.

“It’s scary to be hated, and I don’t suppose anybody needs to be hated,” Retriever mentioned.

“After I completed a lower, I used to be crying. And my physique was shaking. I can’t categorical it in phrases, however I understood all of the pressures Dump will need to have felt.”

The collection not solely presents a women-beating-the-odds story in opposition to a backdrop of sexism and abusive administration but it surely additionally captures the postwar interval of the Showa-era in a means that feels genuine. The scenes used 1000’s of extras, a lot of them critical wrestling followers.

Some viewers say the real-life wrestling was extra intense than the dramatized model within the new collection.

Rionne McAvoy, an Australian filmmaker who as an expert wrestler was hit with a stick by Matsumoto, mentioned: “The actors typically fail to seize the depth, grit and charisma required for these roles.”

However for many viewers, it’s actual sufficient and heartbreaking.

“That is an everlasting however emotional story portraying atypical women who passionately pursued a dream, discovered friendship and likewise themselves,” director Kazuya Shiraishi mentioned.

“It gave me an opportunity to replicate by myself 15-year filmmaking profession, what I really need to be, what sort of movies I need to make. I simply needed to inform their story, which can also be everybody’s story.”

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Yuri Kageyama is on X: