  |
|
|
|
GAEA Girls© Michael Dabaie
Gaea Girls (2000)
Starring: Chigusa Nagayo, Meiko Satomura, Saika Takeuchi For professional wrestling fans (and the general public), access to the inner workings of this once forbidden and often misunderstood world has never been easier. Recently, several films and exposés - including Wrestling With Shadows, Beyond The Mat (Read the review at: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/cult... and the MTV reality series Tough Enough - have allowed audiences to stroll behind what was once professional wrestling's iron curtain. Even so, none of these films will have properly prepared audiences for Gaea Girls. Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams' documentary delves headfirst into a world most U.S. audiences remain completely unaware of - the unique and sometimes violently disturbing realm of Japanese women's professional wrestling. Gaea Girls documents life inside the training dojo of Gaea Japan, one of the country's largest and most successful women's wrestling promotions. Though its match outcomes are as predetermined as those of its cleavage-emphasizing American counterpart, Japanese female pro wrestling is athletic, realistic and shockingly violent. Vince McMahon-inspired "sports entertainment" it ain't! At Gaea's rural camp, teenage girls face a year of relentless physical and mental training (much of which borders on abuse) in the hopes of one day debuting for the famed company. Gaea's head trainer and its marquee attraction is Chigusa Nagayo, a nearly 20-year veteran of the sport and one of its most famous grapplers. Nagayo's preferred training method (and that of her assistants) is to verbally and physically browbeat trainees who exhibit any signs of weakness. (At one point in the film, the camera captures one of Nagayo's assistants, wrestler Meiko Satomura, nearly kicking a trainee's teeth down her throat for failing to exhibit the proper "fire" while sparring.) Aware of how her actions must appear to the outside world, Nagayo explains that she is merely passing on the teaching method used by her father, a stern military officer. Her strict methods, she surmises, will make her trainees hate her, and therefore motivate them to want to someday surpass her in the wrestling business. Gaea's most promising student is Saika Takeuchi. The directors follow Takeuchi as she prepares to face her final challenge: a gauntlet-styled sparring session during which she must battle several of her trainers in succession. Predictably, Takeuchi's final session is excessively brutal. (So much so that it drives several of the other trainees who witness it to flee the camp entirely.) Nagayo and other wrestlers take turns tossing Takeuchi violently around the ring. Afterwards, Nagayo slaps Takeuchi several times in the face and nose, chiding her for her lack of aggression during the bouts, and telling her she is ashamed to have been her teacher. Only after Takeuchi breaks down in tears does Gaea's president inform her that she has passed her test, and will soon make her pro debut. Though Nagoya says it pains her to behave so violently, she rationalizes that her actions will inspire Takeuchi to one day make her eat her words. |
|
|
|
