'Gaku: One Last Road' Review: A Heartbreaking Short Film About Racism & Boxing In The USA

In this economy, it’s okay to settle for a job that you can hold onto until you are in your 60s and gives you a healthy pension, thereby allowing you to coast through your twilight years easily. But there are people for whom that kind of monotony is unacceptable. They want something more. They want to turn their passion into their profession. And that comes with a massive set of problems, especially if you are born in a village, town, or city that doesn’t promote the thing that you are enthusiastic about. What do you do then? Well, you seek elsewhere for opportunities. As soon as you leave the comfort of your home, family, and friends, and dip your toes into a whole new world, you come in contact with people who open doors for you that you didn’t even know existed. However, you also run the risk of running into folks who have such a negative effect on you that you begin to question your choices. Gaku: One Last Round is about this very dichotomy.

Taiga Shi’s Gaku: One Last Round tells the story of Gaku Takahashi, a professional boxer from Japan who moved to California to further his career. In 2020, while driving, he was rear-ended. The perpetrator was about to leave the crime scene, but Takahashi stopped him so that he could take a photo of his car and then alert the authorities about the traffic collision. But, instead of being apologetic for almost killing Takahashi, the individual started hurling racial slurs at him, and then he proceeded to physically attack Takahashi. The boxer fell to the ground and severely injured his shoulder, thereby forcing him to take a break from the ring. While recuperating, Takahashi started contacting the FBI and several other law enforcement organizations that’d ideally help him because he was a victim of a hate crime. Unfortunately, he hit one dead after another. Did that stop him from his pursuit of justice or shake his faith in his abilities as a boxer? Well, that’s what the short film is all about.

Despite having a runtime of just about 12 minutes, Gaku: One Last Round manages to touch upon a myriad of topics. For starters, there’s the commentary on the racism that came along with the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus allegedly started in China. And that meant that anybody who was from East Asia or was born in a particular country but had East Asian origins or features deserved to be racially discriminated against? We kept saying that the pandemic was the great equalizer. But if you remember properly, it divided us more than it united us. Of course, racism existed way before the pandemic hit us. However, it seemed like the disease had given all the bigots a free pass to do anything that they deemed fit because of some bogus conspiracy theory. The virus didn’t make us realize that we are all mortals, and hence we should respect this one life that we have peacefully. It just brought the ugliness that existed inside us and amplified it to such a level that it refuses to die down even 5 years after it was announced that the world had been hit by a pandemic.

Then there’s the dichotomy of pursuing a career in a different country. When it comes to sports, medicine, technology, entertainment, and more, there are certain countries that have monopolized the market, the USA being one of them. I mean, I don’t know much about boxing, but I do know about journalism and movies. It’s true that if I want to take things to the next level, Los Angeles or New York is the place to be. But every aspect of that country is expensive. The competition is cutthroat. And just when you think that you are capable of dealing with those two elements, you are hit with racism. Yes, if you look Caucasian, then that’s not a problem. Everyone else is just one hate crime away from going into the afterlife. So, you have to be willing to take that risk in order to be the best in your profession. And with each passing day, that risk keeps getting bigger, thereby making it difficult for future generations to even think about going off the beaten track. The solutions to these problems exist, but since these countries are doing fine without implementing the rules and regulations that promote unity, they don’t have to care about who is getting hurt.

That brings us to the topic of justice and law enforcement. One of the things that you must have been thinking about ever since you read that plot summary is, “Why didn’t Takahashi just use his boxing skills and knock out that racist douchebag?” Well, as explained by Takahashi, he is a Japanese guy in California who isn’t fluent in English. If he had retaliated, he would’ve had to explain why he had hurt a citizen of ‘Murica, and by the time he would’ve managed to form a sentence, the police would have arrested him instead of the racist guy who had performed a hit-and-run. So, he chose to eat the punches and tank his whole career over spending the rest of his life in jail because at least that has allowed him to recover and restart his life all over again. And that’s just sad. After seeing the amount of money that’s spent on law enforcement, you’d think they would have a bloody translator for cases like Takahashi’s, but they generally don’t. Who knows? Maybe that’s purposeful. Maybe the police want to “protect their own” and make the most of the opportunity to hurt immigrants. Maybe they don’t want the “outsiders” to prove that they are better than those who have gamed the system.

Gaku: One Last Road is really gut-wrenching. It’s tough to see the man in pain, both physically and mentally. When that update on Takahashi’s professional and personal lives shows up on the screen, it’s hard to hold back tears. And once the credits are done rolling, you are left with the question: is it worth it to leave the comfort of your home to pursue your dreams in this socio-political climate? To be honest, I don’t have the answer to that. You might think that you are ready to take on the risks that come with working in a different country, but there’s a good chance that you might have an experience that’ll dissuade you from ever stepping out of your house. However, if you never take that leap of faith, you’ll never know about all the brilliant things that you are capable of. So, I don’t know what you should do. What I do know is that you should never give up, no matter what. Find your people. Communicate. Collaborate. Always keep the fight in you alive so that when you reach the finish line, you don’t see yourself as an old person filled with regret, waiting to die alone.