Netflix series explores women's dreams in the body-slamming world of Japanese pro wrestling

TOKYO (AP) — “The Queen of Villains” is a typical coming-of-age tale about a young woman’s road to empowerment and self-discovery — except it all takes place in the body-slamming, arm-twisting world of Japanese professional wrestling.

The Netflix series, which began airing last month, tells the story of Dump Matsumoto, a real-life wrestling legend from the 1980s who grew up poor with a father who was often absent or abusive.

Matsumoto grew up angry, she said, and went on to create in her wrestling persona a ferocious, almost camp villain character, known in the sport as a “heel,” complete with outlandish Kabuki-like facial makeup, chains, sticks and a grotesque scowl. She loomed large as a symbol of fearless and defiant womanhood.

“I gave it my all to be evil,” Matsumoto said.

A hefty woman with a friendly smile, Matsumoto makes a point even now to adamantly deny that she was ever a nice person or acknowledge that many people in Japan, especially women, love her.

“I still beat people up in matches. I stuck forks in them and made them bleed,” she said, adding, “All the people who pretend to be good are the truly evil ones.”

“The Queen of Villains” follows the friendship between Matsumoto and Chigusa Nagayo of the popular wrestling tag team known as the Crush Gals. Nagayo served as an adviser, trainer and choreographer for the series’ dramatized wrestling scenes.

Japanese professional wrestling fans still talk about the matches between Matsumoto and the Crush Gals, including the ones they fought in the U.S.

The actresses in the series spent two years training for their roles. They gained weight and muscle, and learned techniques like the “giant swing,” in which a wrestler grabs her opponent’s legs and moves in a dizzying circle, or the “flying knee kick,” which involves a jump and kick to the body while airborne.

The trick in professional wrestling is to execute the punches and body slams convincingly but in a controlled way to avoid serious injuries. A wrestler also must know how to fall properly.

One key fight scene took a month to film as the actors went over each move, again and again.

“Dump played a role to be hated by the entire nation,” said Yuriyan Retriever, a professional comedian who stars as Matsumoto in the series.

“Previously, there was a limit, maybe even unintentionally, beyond which I couldn’t go. But when I played Dump, all those emotions had to come out and be expressed,” she said.

She felt like she was no longer playing a role, she said, but that she had become Dump Matsumoto.

“It’s frightening to be hated, and I don’t think anyone wants to be hated,” Retriever said.

“When I finished a cut, I was crying. And my body was shaking. I can’t express it in words, but I understood all the pressures Dump must have felt.”

The series not only presents a women-beating-the-odds story against a backdrop of sexism and abusive management but it also captures the postwar period of the Showa-era in a way that feels authentic. The scenes used thousands of extras, many of them serious wrestling fans.

Some viewers say the real-life wrestling was more intense than the dramatized version in the new series.

Rionne McAvoy, an Australian filmmaker who as a professional wrestler was hit with a stick by Matsumoto, said: “The actors often fail to capture the intensity, grit and charisma required for these roles."

But for most viewers, it’s real enough and heartbreaking.

“This is an eternal but emotional story portraying ordinary girls who passionately pursued a dream, found friendship and also themselves,” director Kazuya Shiraishi said.

“It gave me a chance to reflect on my own 15-year filmmaking career, what I truly want to be, what kind of films I want to make. I just wanted to tell their story, which is also everyone’s story.”

Yuri Kageyama is on X: https://x.com/yurikageyama

In this image provided by Netflix Series The of Queen of Villains, Yuriyan Retriever speaks during an online interview with the Associated Press, on Oct. 4, 2024, in Tokyo, Japan. (Netflix Series The of Queen of Villains via AP)

This undated image released by Netflix Series The Queen of Villains shows Yuriyan Retriever, left, and Dump Matsumoto in Tokyo. (Netflix Series The Queen of Villains via AP)

This image released by Netflix Series The Queen of Villains shows Yuriyan Retriever, front, and Erika Karata in a scene from the film "The Queen of Villains." (Netflix Series The Queen of Villains via AP)

This image released by Netflix Series The Queen of Villains shows Yuriyan Retriever in a scene from the film "The Queen of Villains." (Netflix Series The Queen of Villains via AP)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Divers and marine experts found no evidence of a major fuel spill on a Samoan reef Tuesday after a New Zealand navy ship ran aground and sank, Samoa's deputy prime minister said.

All 75 people on board the HMNZS Manawanui evacuated safely as the boat foundered about a mile off the coast of Upolu, Samoa, early Sunday. The ship was one of only nine in New Zealand’s navy and was the first the country lost at sea since World War II.

Samoan Deputy Prime Minister Tuala Tevaga Iosefo Ponifasio had earlier said a fuel spill was “highly probable." But he said Tuesday there was no evidence of oil spilling onto the reefs, ashore and nearby area, except for “small leakages of oil coming from the vessel.” That had been contained using specialized equipment, Ponifasio said in a statement.

The vessel's passengers — including civilian scientists and foreign military personnel — left the vessel on life boats in “challenging conditions” and darkness, New Zealand’s Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding told reporters. It took five hours for the first survivors to reach land, he said.

One person was treated in a hospital for minor injuries and has been discharged, the military said. Up to 17 others sustained cuts, bruises or suspected concussions. An Air Force plane carrying 72 people from the ship landed at an air base in Auckland on Monday night.

New Zealand will hold a court of inquiry into the loss of the ship. The cause of the accident is not known, but Defense Minister Judith Collins told 1News on Monday that she had been told a loss of power to the vessel had led to its grounding.

The specialist dive and hydrographic vessel had been in service for New Zealand since 2019, but was 20 years old and had previously belonged to Norway, Collins said. It was surveying a reef off the coast of Upolu, Samoa’s most populous island, when it ran aground on the reef and began taking on water.

Photos and videos taken from the shore appeared to show the ship listing before disappearing completely below the waves, with a large plume of smoke rising where it sank.

Manu Percival, a surfing tour guide who works in the area where the ship sank, told The Associated Press by phone that oil was not visible from the ship but debris had littered the water and shoreline, and locals were not gathering shellfish as they normally did. It was too soon to know if the “fragile” reef ecosystem had been damaged, he said.

Ponifasio said marine scientists were testing water samples from nearby beaches for any traces of oil.

The military said the ship, purchased for $100 million NZ dollars ($61 million) in 2018, was not covered by replacement insurance.

The state of New Zealand’s aging military hardware has prompted warnings from the defense agency, which in a March report described the navy as “extremely fragile,” with ships idle due to problems retaining the staff needed to service and maintain them. Of the navy’s eight remaining ships, five are currently operational.

Golding said the HMNZS Manawanui underwent a maintenance period before the deployment. The ship’s captain was an experienced commander who had worked on the vessel for two years, he said.

Follow AP's Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

In this image released by New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF), crew of the HMNZS Manawanui that sank in Samoa on Oct. 6, 2024, walk from their plane after landing at RNZAF Base Auckland, from Samoa, in Whenuapai, New Zealand, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (Petty Officer Chris Weissenborn/NZDF via AP)

Smoke rises from the sinking HMNZS Manawanui in Upolu, Samoa, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2022. (Dave Poole via AP)

This image released by New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF), shows HMNZS Manawanui at the Three Kings islands off the coast New Zealand, on Dec. 1, 2023. (Petty Officer Chris Weissenborn/NZDF via AP)

No evidence of major fuel spill on Samoan reef where New Zealand navy ship sank

In this image released by New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF), HMNZS Manawanui arrives in Funafuti Lagoon, Tuvalu, on Sept. 7, 2022. (PO Christopher Weissenborn/NZDF via AP)

No evidence of major fuel spill on Samoan reef where New Zealand navy ship sank