Director Taichi Suzuki is jumping back into the director’s chair since delivering indie dramaedy The Brat! a decade ago. For this, he brings us his sophomore fight drama, I’m Glad To Be Alive, featuring Samurai Marathon and Legend Of The Fist: The Return Of Chen Zhen actor Ryu Kohata, who now gets to apply his craft as a former boxer to the lead role of Suzuki’s new underdog drama, with signature fight sequences directed by none other than FCS favorite, Kensuke Sonomura (Hydra, Baby Assassins).
Sota Kusunoki (Ryu Kohata) is a professional boxer, who cannot win a single match and is physically wrecked after years of fighting. However, boxing is all he has, and he clings onto it until a doctor stops him, which ends his career.
After his last match, he marries his childhood friend Sachiko and starts a new life. But because he has devoted his life to boxing, he struggles to fit into the society. Sachiko tries to cheer him up, but their relationship only gets strained, developing a rift between the two.
One day, a mysterious young man approaches Sota and asks him if would like to fight again. In desperation, Sota accepts the invitation, and he is taken to an underground martial arts arena where fighters compete for a large sum of money.
In his first match, Sota is beaten to a pulp, unable to fight back at all. However, his instincts awaken and that feeling of excitement comes back to him.
Suzuki directs from his own script with a cast that lists Eri Kamataki (The Forest Of Love), Hiroki Konno (“The Naked Director”, The Blue Danube), Shuntaro Yanabe, Mijika Nagai (Lust In A Karaoke Box, “Girls, Be Lucky”), Daisuke Kuroda (In The Wake, Shin Godzilla), Hirobumi Watanabe (And The Mudship Sails Away), AV star Maria Nagai, Tomoki Kimura (Maniac Driver, A Beast In Love), Ryo Matsumoto, Masanori Mimoto (Hydra, Re:Born), Guin Poon Chaw (What To Do With The Dead Kaiju, Asura Girl: A Blood-C Tale) and Shohei Hino (Fukushima 50, The Voice Of Sin).
Happinet Phantom is repping the film for international sales and is releasing the film domestically on May 13.
