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Gaea Girls (2000)

Gaea Girls (2000)

7.5

A brutal eye-opening look at hazing culture in Joshi wrestling

Movie

Japan, United Kingdom
English, Japanese
Documentary
2000

TLDR

Young girls scratch and claw through trauma to have 5-year careers.

What it's about

This documentary follows the torturous journey of young women aspiring to be pro wrestlers for the Gaea Girls organization in Japan.

The take

When caught between taking pro wrestling too seriously and looking at it like cosplay martial arts, I lean towards the latter precisely because of cultures like this. This documentary gets in the weeds of starry-eyed trainee aspirations, as well as the physical and psychological disfigurement of those dreams that come one dropkick to the face at a time. Saika Takeuchi getting to debut doesn’t even feel like a victory at all. I wonder how much of this only happened to the extent that it did because there were cameras present; then again, I try not to think about this documentary too much.

What stands out

Heal yourself by watching ChocoPro wrestling.

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