Cutie and the Boxer

Nominated for a Best Documentary Oscar in 2014, this sincere New York story explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of two artists: the extravagant boxer-painter Ushio Shinohara and his wife, Noriko. A turbulent and provocative young man, Ushio seemed destined for great fame. In 1969, hoping for international recognition, he left Tokyo for New York, where he only found fleeting success. At the apex of his career, Ushio met 19-year-old Noriko, who’d come to town to study art. They fell in love, and Noriko decided to abandon her studies to become wife, mother and assistant to an artist whose lack of success made him ever more problematic and egocentric. The equilibrium of their roles was suddenly reversed by a show in which they both partecipated. While Ushio, already 80, is still fighting for the recognition of his oeuvre, Noriko met with massive critical favor after her debut with a corpus of drawings titled Cutie -a touching story of her difficult daily life with Bullie. Total dedication to art unites two lives and lends a backdrop to the film, an intense reflection on the eternal themes of love and sacrifice.