Anata kaimasu

A stinging indictment of Western exports like professional sports and capitalism.

A devilish bait-and-switch. Weaves a pretty meaty character drama appropriate for any studio film of the era, while being an indictment of not only greed and corruption in sports, but broadly capitalism itself. By the ending, giant stacks of cash are being flaunted, and all our heroes are reduced to frauds - what else but capitalism.

Leave it to Masaki Kobayashi to take a genre usually reserved for uplifting underdog stories, and make a film about manipulative and conniving scumbags who are all taking advantage of each other. It's not as aesthetically daring or ideologically pointed as his best films, but in its time this was a unique and cynical perspective, even if it has since been rendered a little tame by the machinations and scandals of modern sporting organizations.

Plots in which every single character is essentially flawed assholes of varying degrees are a sure win for me. It is centering on baseball (although, it's really only used as a jumping-off point), and none of the actors give anything particularly compelling, so I can't rate this too highly.

This would have been a lot more enjoyable if the entire movie wasn't about the battle over signing Kurita to a professional club. It's also hurt by the fact that American colleges fighting over high school football players can get a lot more intense and shady than what is depicted here.