WFG RATING: A

A Film Jam/Con Artist Production in association with Lava Films, Ma Studios, and Bionaut. Directed by Jurgis Matulevicius. Produced by Ieva Cern and Stasys Baltakis. Written by Saule Bliuvaite. Cinematography by Bartosz Swiniarski. Edited by Igne Narbutaite.

Stars Marius Repsys, Jian Huang, Severija Janusauskaite, Samanta Drilingaite, Marius Misiunas, Vaidotas Martinaitis, Lu Yi-Ching, Sonia Yuan, and Rinaldis Tomasevicius.

A down-on-his-luck fighter seeks to find redemption within himself in other ways in this drama whose subplots find themselves immersed within the central character.

Osvald “The Bear” Gurevicius was at one time of the best K-1 fighters in the world. However, a mistake involving a woman has led him to be permanently banned from the sport. Now a recluse of sorts, he sleeps in a spare room of the China Sea restaurant owned by his Taiwanese friend Ju-Long. An attempt to make a public apology is met with resistance and his coach Marius, refuses to train him anymore.After joining a support group, Osvald meets Skaiste, a young woman with reservations about herself and Osvald instantly takes a liking to her.

Meeting with Marius again, Osvald asks him if he could become a coach. Reluctant, Marius accepts him and Osvald soon finds a new calling as a coach, training fighters like Angelika and Karolis. He even goes as far as rescuing a chained dog in the middle of winter. Meanwhile, Ju-Long owes money to Edik and his men for gambling debts, and he is forced to bring in girls from the restaurant to pay off the debt. When Osvald discovers this as well as learning the truth about Skaiste, his world slowly begins to crumble back down. Can he find redemption within himself again.

It is great to see a movie about a washed-up fighter on the road to redemption. While in most cases, it results in the fighter entering the ring for one more match, it is quite different in the case of Jurgis Matulevicius’ drama. This film has the fighter going a different route and building his personal life back up on track, from changing careers to possibly finding love.

Marius Repsys is excellent as Osvald, the disgraced fighter whose journey we watch as his first scene shows him as the arrogant and confident fighter in the ring against a Japanese fighter. We then see him sleeping on a train and heading to the titular restaurant run by his friend Ju-Long, played by Taiwanese actor Jian Huang. After a training session at his old gym results in facing the hard truth about his career, we see Osvald lose it. However, once we see him in the support group, that’s the catalyst for his road to redemption.

Jian Huang’s Ju-Long seems like a likable fellow, even showing Osvald a little Wing Chun in his introductory screen. However, we see he’s a troubled man as he owes major gabling debts to local loan shark and bigwig Edik, played with excellence by Rinaldis Tomasevicius.

Severija Janusauskaite’s Skaiste is quite the mysterious character who has two personalities. One is the sweet natured woman Osvald connects with through their support group and the second just happens to be that of working for Edik as his moll, performing in his club and being his arm candy. This is seen through her hair color, sporting her natural raven hair in the day and a blonde wig at night.

As this is the story of a kickboxer, there are some fights and training sessions involved in the film. Repsys trained in Muay Thai for the film and looks naturally good. When Osvald transitions into coaching, he finds peace by having one session where in the middle of the cold, he goes Polar Bear in front of his students and unleashes his technique and lets his rage vent out at the same time. This finally gives him the peace needed to move on from his past and goes as far as training an overconfident and impatient fighter, Angelika, played by Samanta Drilingaite. He sees Angelika as someone who is like him and tries his best to help her go on the right path despite her impatience. It is the final act where things go awry and leads to a very interesting and shocking conclusion.

China Sea is a great and sometimes dark look at the attempt of redemption for a disgraced kickboxer with a tour de force performance by Marius Repsys. Jian Huang and Severija Janusauskaite’s supporting roles are also great to see when immersed with Osvald’s redemption story. Definitely a great film to check out!