As of now, we have finished four of the five matches.
It's three to one!
In other words...
The Chinese Allied Powers can no longer win!
Even if we win the final match,
our team's defeat has been decided.
Our proud Chinese supporters are full of despair.
They're full of despair!
At that moment...
Yujiro!
The Japan-US victors' captain.
Five to zero.
We'll get a perfect win.
Those...
were words of Sea Emperor Kaku, the Chinese Allied Powers' chief.
They broke their promise.
China's dignified 4,000 years of martial arts
and the Sea King and Sea Emperor titles
are still standing tall.
Four thousand years of Chinese martial arts
and hundreds of thousands of martial artists
have disappeared without showing the complete form of Kung Fu you wanted.
Some have fallen ill,
some cried after an injury,
and some quit because they couldn't endure the agonizing training.
Some died of old age too.
Here and now,
one miraculous being reached a complete form
without falling to any obstacles.
This man has been called the master of masters
and has reached the summit that no others could.
He has lived for more than 100 years.
This man has reached the end of the path,
never forgetting or drifting from the martial arts.
You can be proud of him.
Sea Emperor Kaku is an embodiment of Chinese Kenpo.
If I lose here,
the three previous wins will have no meaning whatsoever.
Hello.
Begin!
Get on.
Thank you.
Sea Emperor Kaku.
Yes?
To get to where you are now,
what did you sacrifice and what did you gain?
Money? Friends?
Women? Alcohol?
You had a lot of time where you could've lived in peace.
You voluntarily dived into
more than a hundred years of agonizing training.
What did you obtain and what did you lose?
Answer me.
Listen, Strong One of Japan.
I'm sure you understand.
In the 4,000 years of Chinese martial arts history,
no man admired power more than I did.
I'd do anything for power.
Listen, Strong One.
Women,
friends, alcohol,
blood, and honor.
I didn't hesitate to even throw away my parents and siblings.
Or rather, the strength that I accumulated each and every day
intoxicated me so much that I lost myself.
For a person like me, what was the hardest thing to let go of?
It was power.
My body was burning with a lust for power.
Letting go of that power pained me the most.
In all of Chinese history,
the one who wanted power most was me.
I had once obtained power
and abandoned that power.
Compared to that level of regret,
even the death of a relative is insignificant.
One hundred years ago, my body was covered with steel.
Using any muscle training imaginable,
my small frame became equipped with highly dense muscles.
I was probably the number one in Asia for pure strength.
I showed off my strength, and did crazy feats.
I'd laugh at the logic of martial arts, calling it a complete lie.
I continued proving that it was a lie.
But one day,
I met the real thing.
He was an old figure who was over 60 years old.
His strength felt too poor to be called strength.
But I was struck, kicked,
and beaten down.
I was defeated by martial arts logic.
That day was my turning point.
I threw away all of my training equipment.
And at the same time, that meant saying farewell to my muscles.
I trained to obtain that logic.
Compared to how fast my strength training went,
it felt excruciatingly long.
Every day, I saw my body slowly going back to its normal form,
and I gritted my teeth.
No matter how blessed or how agonizing your days are,
people begin to adapt to the environment and eventually get used to it.
Many days passed
and my muscles continued to disappear from my body.
When I passed 90 years old, my skin sagged from my bones,
and my bowl and chopsticks felt heavy.
That's when I obtained martial arts logic.
LOGIC
I see.
Then this fight
is for logic to challenge strength.
It's the opposite, Yujiro.
Martial arts isn't challenging strength.
Strength is challenging the martial arts.
You are challenging me.
Sea Emperor Kaku, are you aware?
Do you know who the man you're looking down on is
and how powerful he is?
Can I watch the match
from here?
Of course.
It has finally begun.
Ultimate strength versus ultimate logic.
Ultimate force versus ultimate technique.
Ultimate violence versus ultimate martial arts.
Come and get me.
Shaori!
SHAORI
He dodged it!
No.
It hit.
He used Shaori.
And it was at an incredible level.
He dislocated his jaw on purpose
to absorb the impact.
Are you saying
my old man's attack hit?
That's Shaori.
In both east and west,
the time-honored key to self-defense and martial arts
is to relax, as shown in Master Fencer Miyamoto Musashi's self-portrait.
Combat is an exchange of life and death,
and it's an emergency where we engage all our muscles.
Just like holding a child's hand.
Just like keeping an egg safe.
These abstract ideas show a mastery of relaxation.
Past and present martial artists have struggled
with relaxing in emergency situations.
It's easier said than done.
Despite having a decisive blow like Hanma's right in front of him,
he relaxed splendidly.
It's as hard to control
as swinging a razor down on a tissue in mid-air.
I'm still too inexperienced
to imitate it.
Did my old man use his full force?
Look at the wall.
Glasses that are as light as an eraser
are stuck in the wall.
I'm sure he kicked with full force.
Quite impressive, Strong One.
How many decades has it been since I had a nosebleed?
He can even handle attacks from above, which is Shaori's weakness.
Sea Emperor, what mastery.
My old man's moves...
Yujiro Hanma's moves don't work on him?
How great.
I guess things like Chinese Kenpo
are just for playing around.
Is that so?
Shaori?
Shaori, a high-level technique in Chinese martial arts since ancient times.
We stiffen up when danger approaches.
This is an inevitable reaction for animals.
However, such instincts make the situation worse.
Even if heavy winds topple over giant trees,
wind does not affect the soft vegetation.
Some adults carelessly trip and break a bone,
while a baby falls from a high area unharmed.
It's wisdom learned from nature.
Boxers go through long training
and eventually stop blinking when hit.
In other words, training is for overcoming your instincts.
Sea Emperor Kaku.
I'll bring back your instincts.
Is he saying
he'll beat the Shaori?
That man
doesn't bluff.
He'll beat the Shaori
in an unpredictable way.
It's gotten interesting,
Strong One.
He's moving.
The Sea Emperor is going first.
Just you try.
My hair?
I didn't see that coming,
Yujiro Hanma!
By pulling out one strand of hair,
his body unwittingly stiffens up a tiny bit.
Just as it sounds, he didn't miss his timing even by a hair.
What mastery.
You're a genius.
That was a close call.
Right, Strong One?
You almost died.
You can believe these words
or you can doubt them.
What is he saying?
I don't know, but...
that man
is someone who never bluffs.
Although I'm saying this, I can only do old geezer punches.
It's no big deal.
Try it.
He dodged.
My old man...
ran away!
What's this? Did you run away from this weak old geezer's punch?
What is happening?
Well, then.
Old man!
Well, well.
Why is that Japanese guy running?
And he's cornered now.
The great Yujiro Hanma...
is on the wall.
That idiot, what is he wimping out for?
Your cowardice makes it hard to believe you were called
the Strongest Creature on Earth.
Strong One, what are you afraid of?
What's so scary?
Is he a monster?
I've been found out.
You sly fox.
I thought as much.
It's Shaori!
Shaori makes you lose body mass,
but also relaxes your body.
The punch he unleashed comes from extreme relaxation.
The Defensive Shaori turns into an Offensive Shaori.
In other words, Shaori is the relaxation of your body.
Even outside of fighting and martial arts,
relaxation is used in modern sports when explosive power is needed.
Pitching, batting,
throwing, and hitting.
All of them focus on impact.
You relax up until that moment.
Relax your body until the impact.
The more you relax, the better.
That is why superior athletes have softer muscles.
The extreme shift in relaxation to tension is the key to power.
Then it's possible.
That absurdly powerful punch makes sense.
That's amazing!
A Japanese guy 100 times bigger than him
was sent into the air!
My dad's over 100 kilograms and yet...
Strong One, does this make you happy?
He's strong.
I didn't know such a strong man existed.
You may have never met me if you took one different turn in life.
But by some turn of fate, you found me, a worthy opponent.
I'm happy about it too.
Living long isn't so bad.
What?
You have lived way too long, old geezer.
You're so senile that you haven't noticed something important.
You're in big trouble, old geezer.
Retsu, was that...
There's no way.
Yujiro...
is using Shaori!
Is that what the Sea Emperor did earlier?
Shaori...
Did he copy it by just watching?
The secret art of Shaori?
Did he learn it or already know it?
Did you copy me, Strong One?
I have been hearing for 20 years
that the strongest man on Earth is in Japan.
You live up to your name as a superb genius.
I'm sure your opponents until now weren't satisfying.
Isn't life fun?
We got to meet like this.
My Shaori and your Shaori.
-Let's see which is real-- -Don't worry, geezer.
What?
I'll never use the Shaori again.
What?
I was poking fun at how you showed off your moves.
It's not my normal fighting style.
Oh, the young one has his own style?
-Amazing! -Those biceps are huge.
They're like metal.
Do you get it, old geezer?
Fighting is about liberating your power.
That cathartic release is impossible without exerting strength.
I haven't felt this much tension in 100 years.
IDIOTS FROM PLANET STRONG
Subtitle translation by Chul Kim