Knocked down but not counted out

If Karyn Kusama's Girlfight (2000), Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby (2004) and Sian Heder's CODA (2021) were somehow spliced together like so much movie DNA, the resulting film might look something like Sho Miyake's Small, Slow but Steady, a quasi-pandemic boxing drama that's more subversive than expected and more emotionally nuanced than it has a right to be. Loosely based on deaf boxer Keiko Ogasawara's autobiography, this is a marvel of a film - first for its ability to make COVID-19 a valid story thread and thematic indicator, and second for undermining standard sports drama beats, but still being a sports drama. That's a hard balance to maintain, but journeyman director Sho Miyake has no trouble wrangling his material. Small, Slow but Steady is a quietly affecting plea for community - but not in the cloying, cynical sense of "being kind" that's been harped on of late. It's also genuine, incisive, legitimately empowering and gorgeously rendered visual storytelling about a woman finding her place in a volatile world.

It's late in 2020 and Keiko (Yukino Kishii, an under-the-radar veteran actor in a career-best performance) is an amateur boxer who's just turned pro. She's won her first bout but she's not coasting yet. Working in housekeeping at a luxury hotel, she's one of the staff's best but is separated from her coworkers due to her hearing impairment - a plight made worse by COVID-19 mask mandates: She can't see anyone's lips when they talk. Her brother (Himi Sato) and mother (Hiroko Nakajima) both wonder about the wisdom of a career as a pugilist; the health of her coach and mentor, The Chairman (Tomokazu Miura), is failing; and the pandemic threatens to close down her gym. It all gives Keiko just enough time to wonder if she really needs to keep boxing.