Kaji Toshiro nicknamed himself ‘Unchain’ after the Ray Charles song ＂Unchain my Heart.＂ He became a pro boxer in 1988 and had just seven bouts (one draw, no wins) before nerve paralysis in his eyes forced him to retire. He has driven trucks, worked as a radio disc-jockey and helped disabled kids; he has drink and mental problems, but is fiercely devoted to his friend Sachiko and her two kids, although she married his Korean-Japanese friend Nagaishi while Kaji was in hospital. Toshiaki Toyoda centers his terrific documentary on Kaji himself, detailing his friendships with three other failed boxers and the bizarre raid on an employment office that got him sent to a mental hospital. Through Kaji, Toyoda sketches a vivid, unsentimental and completely non-patronizing account of life on the bottom rung of the ladder in Osaka′s Kamagasaki district. But more generally, he also offers a riveting image of macho masculinity in crisis: a vision of the limits of a testosterone-driven life. (Tony Rayns)