Terayama’s most traditional film, The Boxer reveals his passion for pugilism as a pure form of theater, improvisatory and unabashedly violent. The Boxer tells the story of a scrappy adolescent who spends his last monies to travel to the city and enroll in boxing school. Forging a difficult bond with his eccentric and at first reluctant coach, the young boxer suffers the tumults and pains of life in the ring before being thrust onto the largest stage of them all. Terayama brings a documentary verve to the film, casting celebrated Japanese boxers in bold cameos.