"The Aware of Boxing": Subject Reconstruction, Genre Variation, and Cultural Representation of Boxing Films in Japan
Abstract
Japanese boxing films focus on marginalized groups such as hikikomori, ethnic minorities, and the deaf-mute, transforming boxing from a tool for external gain into a "language" to communicate with the world. They respond to identity anxiety in modern society and accomplish subject reconstruction. By breaking the narrative paradigm of the "hero's journey" and expressing the traditional "mono no aware" aesthetics, these films demonstrate the plot tension of ordinary people "burning out their lives," completing the genre variation of "the aware of ordinary mortals." Cultural representation is reflected in three aspects: the genre variation as a cultural resistance against capital-driven "winner economy" and meritocracy; the expression of Japanese traditional aesthetics through defeat or "de-competition"; and the philosophical elaboration of "the human condition" and "human emancipation" through boxing as an act.
References
- Kondo, S. (2024). List of Japanese Sports Films—Towards a Systematic Study of "Movement" in Sports and Cinema. Annual Report Promis, 2(1), 99-122.
- Gong, J., & Wang, Y. (2023). New Generation, New Landscapes—Observation on the Japanese Film Industry and Creation in the Post-Pandemic Era. Film Art, (6), 123-130.
- Kleiner, F. S. (2012). Gardner’s Art through the Ages: A Global History, Fourteenth Edition, Volume I. Boston: Cengage Learning.
- Tokagawa, T., & Zhu, X. (2023). The Unique World Constructed by Sho Miyauchi—An Interview with the Director of Keiko, Meantime. World Cinema, (6), 185-189.
- Han, B. (2019). The Disappearance of the Other (Q. Wu, Trans.). Beijing: CITIC Press.
- Chan, W. (2021, January 10). Low Desire = Lack of Ambition? [EB/OL]. Retrieved November 4, 2025, from https: //www.tkww.hk/epaper/view/newsDetail/1347985828269395968.html
- Hayashi, H. (2022). "Cooperation Rather Than Competition": The Lifestyle of the Satori Generation and Generation Z Derived from the Desire Not to Fail. Intellectual Asset Creation, 10, 58-77.
- Shikata, I. (2007). Japanese Cinema in an Asian Context (J. Yang, Trans.). Nanjing: Jiangsu Education Publishing House.
- Sartre, J. P. (2007). Being and Nothingness (X. Chen, Trans.). Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing Company.
- Lu, J. (2024). The Eye of Media and the Way of Immersion—A New Interpretation of the "Everyday Life Aesthetics" in Recent Japanese Film Images. Contemporary Cinema, (10), 114-121.
- Schatz, T. (2009). Hollywood Genres (X. Feng, Trans.). Shanghai: Shanghai People's Publishing House.
- Ōnishi, K. (2017). Yūgen, Mono no Aware, Wabi-Sabi: A Study of Three Key Concepts in Japanese Aesthetics (X. Wang, Trans.). Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing House.
- Grindon, L., & Zhang, Y. (2011). Boxing Films and Genre Theory. World Cinema, (6), 4-13.
- Huang, Y. (2024). "Viewing" as "Creation": A Study on the Subjectivity of Contemporary Japanese Film Creation. Journal of Beijing Film Academy, (2), 99-108.
- Sartre, J. P. (2005). Existentialism Is a Humanism (X. Zhou, & Y. Tang, Trans.). Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing House.
- Arendt, H. (2017). The Human Condition (Y. Wang, Trans.). Shanghai: Shanghai People's Publishing House.
- Toivonen, T., Norasakkunkit, V., & Uchida, Y. (2011). Unable to Conform, Unwilling to Rebel? Youth, Culture, and Motivation in Globalizing Japan. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 207.
- Zhang, J., & Wang, B. (2025). Hannah Arendt's Inheritance and Transcendence of Aristotle's Thought on Activities. Journal of Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 51(4), 1-10+133+125.