BFI London Film Festival 2026: Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing

Director: Erik Shirai

It is not easy for someone outside Japanese culture to appreciate sumo wrestling. The sport appears to require scant tactics or skill as victory is achieved just by pushing an opponent out of the ring or getting one of their limbs, other than a foot, to touch the floor. To help the viewer appreciate the subtleties of the sport Erik Shirai’s documentary examines its origins, cultural rituals and the attitudes of those who take part. The documentary includes the defiant statement that the wrestlers are warriors rather than performers or athletes whilst also raising doubts as to how long this elevated status can continue.

Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing focuses upon three young aspiring rikishi fighters:  a rising star, a rookie and a little giant. The documentary goes inside the wrestlers’ training grounds as well as the arenas in which they compete. The physical and social regimes with which the wrestlers must comply are explored; including adhering to strict curfews and accepting a hierarchy of wrestlers. Eating, one interviewee maintains, is a skill.

Director Shirai takes a neutral approach and does not challenge any of the statements made by participants in the documentary. It seems odd, however, that despite the constant reference to the high regard in which wrestlers are held, a collection of them trained by a sumo master is called a ‘stable’ which could suggest the wrestlers are actually perceived as livestock.

Although the documentary takes statements at face value it is far from a whitewash. The impact of a sumo lifestyle upon the wrestlers is unflinchingly depicted. Wrestlers are prone to diabetes and osteoarthritis and debilitating injuries especially to the knees. It is generally accepted their life expectancy is shortened by up to a decade. In 2021 a 28-year old wrestler died after falling on his head and the documentary features regular scenes of doctors administering a range of drugs. A wrestler acknowledges injuring an opponent simply by falling on top of him.  The attitude of the wrestlers is numbingly fatalistic; fully aware of, but accepting, the strains they are imposing upon their bodies.

Sumo bouts can be over in seconds. Possibly to compensate for the brevity director Shirai lovingly shows the associated rituals. The documentary lingers on the precise tying of a rikishi’s top-knot, the painstaking method of building the sand to form the sumo ring and the ritualised procedure for its purification. A degree of drama creeps in as the documentary captures a match which has to be repeated for an unprecedented third time before a result becomes apparent.

Director Shirai acknowledges, but does not analyse, a major problem facing the sport. There is concern as to how long the tradition can survive. The number of wrestlers has declined from 1,000 in the 1990s to just 600 in the present day with recruits having to be found from outside Japan-Mongolia and America- to fill the gap.

The wrestlers interviewed in the documentary acknowledge the situation with the bland response they hope the financial success they enjoy will encourage newcomers to the sport.  The documentary details the lavish rock star lifestyles of the wrestlers with hordes of fans and opulent events. But no effort is made to go outside the bubble in which the wrestlers exist and ask members of the wider community if they have ever considered becoming a sumo and whether, in current society, it is still regarded as an honour or if the all-too-apparent physical consequences are a deterrent.

Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing is a gentle introduction for an outsider to the world of sumo wrestling. A less appreciative, more analytical, approach might better have examined the factors which have contributed to the shrinking number of wrestlers and speculated whether the decline can be reversed. In its present format the documentary leaves the melancholy impression that the glory days of sumo wrestling may have passed.

Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2026 from 7-18 October.