ONE MOVE AT A TIME

The Miracle of Crybaby Shottan tells the true story of a shogi prodigy’s unlikely comeback. By KEVIN MA

THERE’S A TYPICAL

movie formula about a gifted individual: a unique talent bursts onto the scene, astounding everyone, then overcomes all obstacles and achieves victory. But life doesn’t usually work that way.

Shoji Segawa showed promise as a teen prodigy in shogi – Japanese chess – but was forced to quit because he wasn’t good enough. His story, including an unlikely comeback a decade later, is the subject of The Miracle of Crybaby Shottan. It’s not about the rise of a once-in-a-lifetime star (that might be reserved for Sota Fujii, who made headlines when he achieved pro status in 2016 at age 14) but a stirring drama about facing one’s own mediocrity.

We first meet Segawa as a young boy with a talent in shogi. Accompanied by his friend and frequent opponent, Yuya, he begins visiting smoky shogi parlours to play against adults. He becomes so good at the game that he skips high school to join the Shorei-kai, the Japan Shogi Association’s academy for training young players to become pros. The catch: Segawa must reach fourth dan, the lowest pro rank, by the age of 26 or he’ll never have a career as a pro. Unfortunately, Segawa realises the hard way that he’s no Bobby Fischer.

Best known for gritty, testosterone-fuelled dramas such as Blue Spring and 9 Souls, Toshiaki Toyoda was an unlikely choice to direct a film about chess. But Toyoda has a personal connection to the story: he was also a shogi prodigy, who joined the Shoreikai when he was nine, only to burn out several years later.

Toyoda captures shogi with the expertise of an insider, but he creates drama and suspense in the stakes of the matches rather than the games’ mechanisms. The film’s surface narrative – that even talented people don’t necessarily have that special something to succeed – gives way to a poignant and genuinely moving drama about second chances. Game on Ryuhei Matsuda (left) portrays a player who never stopped trying 屢敗屢戰 松田龍平（上圖左）飾演一名永不放棄目標的棋士