A Matter of Size

Product Description Four overweight friends from the Israeli city of Ramle are fed up of dieting and the dieting club they belong to. When Herzl (155 kilos), the main protagonist, loses his job as a cook and starts working as a dishwasher in a Japanese restaurant in Ramle he discovers the world of Sumo where large people such as himself are honored and appreciated. Through Kitano (60 kilos), the restaurant owner, a former Sumo coach in Japan (who is supposedly hiding from the Yakuza in Israel), he falls in love with a sport involving "two fatsos in diapers and girly hairdos". Herzl wants Kitano to be their coach but Kitano is reluctant - they first have to earn their spurs. "A Matter of Size" is a comedy about a 'coming out' of a different kind - overweight people learning to accept themselves. Review THE MOVIE MAVEN: MOVIE REVIEW A MATTER OF SIZE By Daniel M. Kimmel Israeli cinema is not known for its broad comedies, but that may have to change after A Matter of Size, which is both very broad and very funny. Herzl (Itzik Cohen) weighs over 300 pounds and is the shame of his weight loss class as he keeps gaining weight even as he supposedly diets. He's so big, he says, that kids used to mock him as Mt. Herzl. When he's demoted as salad bar chef to a spot out of the public eye, he quits and ends up with a job at a Japanese restaurant. There he discovers sumo wrestling which feature oversize grapplers who are treated in Japan with great respect. Herzl learns that the owner of the restaurant (Togo Igawa), is a former sumo trainer. He pleads with him to train Herzl and his other overweight pals in the sport. This 2009 Israeli film is being released here the same year a new version of The Karate Kid is coming out, but the similarities are superficial. Both feature a Japanese master of an Asian sport training westerners who gain self-esteem along with their hard won skills, but there the connection ends. What follows in A Matter of Size is a comedy in which the overweight characters strive to turn their negative self-images into positive ones. It's not easy. As one of them puts it, sumo is a sport featuring two fatsos in diapers and girly hairdos, but these hefty Israelis take it seriously even as they deal with the personal issues in their lives. One thinks his wife is cheating on him. Another is deciding whether to come out of the closet. They have internalized the negative reactions they get from so many people without realizing they are far from universal. For Herzl, the problem is the women in his life. His widowed mother (Evelin Hagoel) loves him but can be a pain as when she chides him about his weight with one breath and urges him to eat with the next. Then there's Zehava (Irit Kaplan), who is also plus-size and becomes the love interest. They're adorable together, until she learns that women can't participate in sumo. Herzl pretends to drop out but secretly continues, and it's a recipe for disaster given that Zehava is twice divorced from men who lied to her. With the exception of a wholly unexpected revelation about one of the characters, there's no politics here. This is a comedy that could take place in any western society where relative affluence leads to people being overweight. The characters are on a journey where they will first have to accept themselves before they can get others to accept them for who they are. And if they means running through the streets wearing nothing but a red diaper, (the traditional garb of the sumo wrestler), it may mean people will stare, but as A Matter of Size makes hilariously clear, that's their problem. *** (Daniel M. Kimmel, a Boston-based film critic and author, reviews Jewish films for the Advocate. He lectures widely on a variety of film-related topics and can be reached at daniel.kimmel@rcn.com.) --The Jewish Forward VARIETY April 27, 2009 A Matter of Size Sipur gadol (Israel-Germany-France) By ALISSA SIMON A UCM Films (Israel)/Tapuz Communications (Israel)/ K5 Intl. (Germany)/Mact Prods. (France) production. Produced by Chilik Michaeli, Avraham Pirchi, Tami Leon, Oliver Simon, Daniel Baur. Co-producers, Micha Shagrir, Marc Sillam, Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre, Bill Stephens. Directed by Sharon Maymon, Erez Tadmor. Screenplay by Maymon, Danny Cohen Solal, based on an original idea by Maymon. With: Itzik Cohen, Irit Kaplan, Dvir Benedek, Alon Dahan, Shmulik Cohen, Togo Igawa, Evelin Hagoel. (Hebrew, Japanese dialogue) Fed up with dieting, four overweight friends in the Israeli city of Ramle decide to start a sumo wrestling club in genial situation comedy "A Matter of Size," from helmers Sharon Maymon and Erez Tadmor. Part sports drama, part love story, this sweetly absurd tale of forlorn blue-collar guys pursuing a difficult goal -- and in the process learning to accept themselves -- recalls audience-pleasing fare such as "The Full Monty." With visual and verbal humor hitting the mark, the pic could attract offers from niche arthouse distribs Stateside. A
ASIN: B005PYEQH4
VSKU: DBV.B005PYEQH4.A
Condition: Acceptable
Author/Artist:Dvir Benedek|Itzik Cohen|Alon Dahan|Irit Kaplan|Shumlik Cohen|Levana Finkelstein|Togo Igawa|Sharon Maymon|Erez Tadmor
Binding: Dvd
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Condition Notes: Individually inspected: Guaranteed to play perfectly or your money back. Case will show wear, and may be in library packaging. Ships fast!