GAEA Girls - Page 2
© Michael Dabaie
In many ways, Longinotto and Williams' documentary is as gritty and Spartan as the trainees' lives and living conditions. Gone for the most part are narration, the directors' personal opinions, music or any sort of cinematic slickness. Rather, Gaea Girls plays like a rough assembly of raw footage, which suits the bared emotions of the trainees and wrestlers well.
Likewise, Williams and Longinotto never insert themselves into the action and include surprisingly few interviews with their characters. Instead, they let the participants' actions speak for themselves. However, this bare-bones approach also leads to the movie's main flaw: viewers are seldom given insight into the characters' motivations. For example, in a brief interview segment, Takeuchi speaks wistfully about how wrestlers on TV shine brighter than stars and how she hopes a career in professional wrestling will enable her to stand out in life. Nevertheless, this stock comment provides little detail regarding what events have motivated Takeuchi to set out on this path, and why she has stuck with it despite the cruelty she faces at the hands of her trainers. Unfortunately, Gaea Girls never answers these questions. Indeed, most of the time when we see Takeuchi she is either crying or too petrified of Nagayo to say anything.
The film succeeds, however, by giving audiences unprecedented insight into the pain, sacrifice and proud determination that go into becoming a professional wrestler. With its stripped down approach, the film exposes the women's emotions raw and confronts the viewer with them. One can't help but look on in horror as Nagayo humiliates Takeuchi in front of the entire camp, or share in her relief when she passes her final exam, or feel her elation and nervous anticipation as she tries on her wrestling outfit for the first time.
But one also can't help but notice these women's inner conflicts and inherent contradictions. For instance, Nagayo explains that her students are like her children, but tells one who has opted to leave camp that she will never forgive her and refuses to even shake her hand or say goodbye. Another trainer talks about the need for wrestlers to hide their emotions, but later breaks down weeping because she fears she won't succeed as a professional wrestler. And perhaps most perplexing is Takeuchi herself, who - despite the abuse she has suffered - concludes the film by affirming that the wrestler she most admires is her mentor, Chigusa Nagayo.
