Watch at Home 11.28.2025

Sumo Do, Sumo Don't

Directed by Masayuki Suo
Film Movement Classics
1992
103 Minutes
Japan
Japanese
Comedy, Drama, Sports, Asian, Classics
Not Rated

College student Shuhei (Masahiro Motoki, Departures) finds out he is lacking a few credits for graduation. His crafty professor, a sumo enthusiast, says he’ll let it slip if Shuhei joins the school team and competes in the regional university tournament. Shuhei begrudgingly joins the team, which includes one member, the eccentric repeat student Aoki, and the pretty club manager Natsuko. They are soon joined by a ragtag group of new members including an outspoken British exchange student and a tough overweight coed. Everyone seems driven by ulterior motives at first. Yet as their trials and tribulations see them grow though hilariously outrageous shenanigans, so too does the team cultivate a winning spirit for the traditional Japanese pastime. Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t finds director Masayuki Suo (Shall We Dance?) refining his themes and motifs in this “fully entertaining, sometimes laugh out loud movie about sports underdogs who rise to success” (Japan On Film).

The restoration of SUMO DO, SUMO DON'T was done by Tokyo Koon Co. Ltd., and supervised by Naoki Kayano. The original camera negative underwent a 4K scan by Imagica Entertainment Media Services, Inc. (Scanity by Digital Film Technology)

Director & Cast

  • Director: Masayuki Suo
  • Starring: Masahiro Motoki
  • Starring: Misa Shimizu
  • Starring: Naoto Takenaka
  • Starring: Akira Emoto

Where to Watch

Trailer

Photos

Reviews

  • "A rare treasure, and a pinnacle of its genre."
    Grant Watson, Fiction Machine
  • "The final sumo matches are genuinely exciting."
    Chase Burns, The Stranger
  • "Imbued with that understated eccentricity that many Japanese comedies have used so effectively, Masayuki Suo’s homage to his country’s unique culture proves to be a winning effort. "
    Andrew Saroch, Far East Films
  • "[A] fully entertaining, sometimes laugh out loud movie about sports underdogs who rise to success...."
    Japan On Film
  • "Unashamedly feel good yet never tipping over into the mawkishly sentimental, Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t is the best kind of sports comedy where the outcome itself is almost irrelevant in light of the greater game that’s been in play right the way through."
    Hayley Scanlon, Windows on Worlds
  • "A funnier re-run of Fancy Dance (with sumo wrestling replacing Zen Buddhism) and an even more self-confident trial run for Shall We Dance?"
    Time Out

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