screenshots / Sumo Do, Sumo Don't / 1992 Cabin Company Ltd.

In this award winning Japanese comedy a young man is forced to join his university's sumo club in order to graduate.

Starring Masahiro Motoki (as Shuhei Yamamoto), Naoto Takenaka (as Aoki Tomio), Akira Emoto (as Professor Tokichi Anayama) and Robert Hoffman (as George Smiley), directed by Masayuki Suo.

The 16th Japan Academy Film Prize (sometimes referred to as the Japan Academy Awards) selected the film for Best Work, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor (Masahiro Motoki) and Best Supporting Actor(Naoto Takenaka).

Masahiro Motoki had previously worked for director Masayuki Suo as the star of the 1989 film Fancy Dance, in the role of a punk rocker who has to become Buddhist monk so as to inherit a mountain temple.

The film was remade as a television series (which Disney+ premiered on October 26, 2022) with both actress Misa Shimizu and actor Naoto Takenaka reprising their roles from the film.