Chung Chuan’s intimate exploration of Taiwan’s underground wrestling scene is at heart a film about men, their hobbies, and their mothers. In this archive of brutal slams, broken ribs and blackouts, nothing seems to hit further below the belt than this rather Freudian trio. Navigating these tensions within the wrestling arena’s subcultural webs, FACE TO FACE explores the cracks and quiet triumphs of contemporary masculinities existing both within and counter to a world constructed of surfaces, screens, and costumes.
FACE TO FACE follows the everyday struggles of a number of young wrestlers as they battle to sustain their sport amid faltering relationships and finances. Far from the glossy WWE glamour which constructs of muscle and spandex a seemingly infallible spectacle of virility, Chuan shows Taiwan’s wrestling scene to know only small crowds, to enjoy only limited renown, and to be respected by few. The sport here appears to be both financially and professionally ruinous, with young wrestlers typically having to work exorbitant hours during the day to support their passion. The sport’s pull lies, then, in its foreign mystique, its commitment to escapism, and in the necessity of some to lead a double life. One wrestler, a computer engineer by day, lives for his transformation into “Dragon Man” by night, whilst dreaming that one day he will be able to be entirely honest with his family and count his mortified mother among his cheering spectators.
The documentary is brilliantly honest in its navigating of marginal masculinities struggling for expression among anonymous, consumerist lanscapes. The camera is mainly handheld and ambulant, passing unnoticed and without bias between the parallel worlds of the wrestling ring and the city street. This visual passivity mirrors the film’s narrative openness, with Chuan’s eagerness to follow paths and characters as and when they occur acting in defiance of any artificial documentary trajectory or agenda. When the camera sees one young wrestler board the train to leave for military service, we linger with his forlorn girlfriend, following her back into her own life and aspirations; rather than feeling like a distraction or an unwanted detour, these quiet forays into the worlds surrounding the wrestlers serve to further portray the unexpected reach of the ripples emanating from this subterranean source. The men at the centre of Chuan’s documentary crawl in and out of the social woodwork in their many different costumes and stage personae in a constant movement which blurs the line between the underground world of the arena and daily life whilst simultaneously holding these worlds in tension.
The sport’s pull lies in its foreign mystique, its commitment to escapism, and in the necessity of some to lead a double life.
Surreal aspects of the documentary showcase the director’s talent in playfully merging these two worlds. One scene shows a wrestler walking around the supermarket in which he works extra time to support his sport. The traveling shots about the aisles depict a world of cold surfaces, superficial lights and clinical packaging, yet Chuan playfully adds elements of CGI to make certain packaging come to life or talk at the camera, imagining the wrestler’s wondering mind as he carries out menial tasks. These creative and surreal meanderings within the documentary reality act to further allow both worlds to bleed into each other, superimposing and questioning the distance between the different layers of superficiality and surface at play in the protagonists’ professional and wrestling lives. What is the relationship between the cheap supermarket packaging designed to entice someone into buying a product and the garish costumes they don each night in the ring? To what extent is the glamour of wrestling pursued in Taiwan also a product of a global market selling quick-fix escapism to all those in need of an image?
Near the end of the film, one of the men responsible for wrestling’s growing popularity in Taiwan explains “wrestling is not about winning, but about entertainment”. This documentary is at its most brilliant in showing us precisely this: how entertainment is created and images choreographed, how surfaces are lived and consumed, and how “winning” is rarely involved. Our own consumption and enjoyment of Chuan’s documentary allow these questions to hang uncomfortably. Most crucially, however, FACE TO FACE explores how images – superficial, purchased, and disposable as they might sometimes seen – can and do provide very real life support to those that live in and around them, no matter how fragile.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE_9y7F-f2M