Small, Slow But Steady

Keiko Ogawa is a hearing-impaired young woman training at a boxing gym on the outskirts of Tokyo, where she communicates through her body rather than her voice. She dreams of turning professional, and a pair of early victories suggests she might get there. Then two setbacks arrive at once: the gym faces the threat of closing, and its ageing president, the person who has backed her more than anyone, is seriously ill. Keiko is pushed to the edge of despair and must decide whether to keep going.

Sho Miyake directed and co-wrote the film with Masaaki Sakai. It stands second in his filmography, between Good for Nothing (2012) and All the Long Nights (2024). Yukino Kishii plays Keiko, with Tomokazu Miura as the gym president Katsumi Sasaki. The supporting cast includes Masaki Miura, Shinichiro Matsuura, Himi Sato and Hiroko Nakajima. The production was a French-Japanese co-production, shot in 99 minutes.

Released in December 2022, the film drew modest but consistent responses: on IMDb it holds 6.9 from around 1,500 votes, and on TMDB 6.9 from a much smaller group of 61. A critics' rating of 7.3 from 16 reviews places professional opinion slightly above the general audience.