Like Japanese society itself, the Japan Sumo Association maintains a carefully ranked hierarchy, consisting of six divisions and hundreds of athletes — a level of organization unparalleled in boxing, kickboxing, or mixed martial arts. Also like Japanese society, a vast level of accepted corruption and violence lurks just under this placid surface, occasionally erupting into major scandals, which demand face-saving retirements and suspensions from key figures but leave the fundamentals of the sport undisturbed: athlete abuse, match-fixing, and the mistreatment of the foreigners who now dominate the upper ranks of the sport have all attracted media scrutiny in the past two decades.
The Netflix-produced series Sanctuary attempts the challenging task of bringing this intricate world of sumo wrestling to the international stage. Directed by Kan Eguchi (The Fable) and written by Tomoki Kanazawa (Sabakan), the show explores the ideological struggles inherent in sumo wrestling, most notably the balance between individual ambition and the maintenance of tradition in a venerable sport that occupies a prominent place in the country’s Shinto religious culture. Though laden with a cast of cliched characters, this central conflict nearly elevates the plot to the level of profound intensity found in grand Greek epics — something surprisingly common in Japanese popular media, where cartoon shows and role-playing games directed at teenagers and populated by walking stereotypes nevertheless occasionally manage to evoke the grandest human themes.
Read Full Article »