Zachary Heinzerling directed the 2013 documentary Cutie and the Boxer. This film takes place in New York City and depicts a couple: Ushio and Noriko Shinohara. Noriko was an aspiring artist who only had her parents’ support to survive on. Noriko was young when she moved to New York City from Japan and met Ushio. Ushio was already a well-established artist at the age of forty when he met Noriko. Ushio and Noriko began a relationship with one another that Noriko’s parents did not approve of. The two got married and began their lives together, without the support of Noriko’s family. For the two to survive they relied on each other and on selling their artworks. Noriko’s works are done in a cartoon style with her using brush and canvas to depict her works. Noriko’s works mainly involve her painting her life, with Noriko being “Cutie” in her works and Ushio being “Bullie”. While Noriko’s works were more literal, Ushio’s work tended to be on the more abstract side of things. Ushio tends to be most well known for his methods of boxing the canvas to create his paintings.
The movie portrays the realistic life of the two struggling artists, with both of them living in a smaller apartment and Ushio having a drinking problem. Noriko had to give up her dreams of being an artist temporarily after getting pregnant and having to raise their young son Alex. Noriko would portray her emotions through her art at this time. She would paint dreary scenes of her life, her anger with her path and how Ushio would put drinking before his family and self-care. During this time Noriko’s works showed Ushio leaving their family behind to go out with friends and drink all through a comic strip format style of painting. She would use real-life events and depict herself and her husband in a cartoon style to tell her story and the emotions that came along with it. These become the works that Noriko gets discovered for. While showing her works to her friend, Noriko is encouraged to show her works in an exhibit. Noriko does an exhibit with her husband Ushio, where Noriko puts her private life on show for everyone. This put Noriko’s name into the artist spotlight, and she becomes well known in art circles for her work. Instead of Noriko being known as the wife to a famous artist she was able to be known as an artist herself. This is reminiscent of other artist couples such as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, with a young woman marrying an already established artist and eventually becoming a known artist on their own.
Another connection that can be drawn between the relationships of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, and Noriko and Ushio Shinohara are that the females’ works depicted emotional context, while the men portrayed little emotional context in the works. Ushio’s works had techniques that were considered revolutionary in an abstract sense. Ushio would set up a large blank canvas, put on a pair of boxing gloves, dip them in paint, and begin forcefully punching the canvas to create his works.
Even though the film is about the relationship between Noriko and Ushio, the movie takes place mostly through the perspective of Noriko. This allows us to know the perspective of Noriko and her feelings while driving the plot forward. The movie uses her artworks as a way to move the story along and provide some emotional contexts to the scenes. This allowed those watching the movie to interpret the emotional context more easily without having to make the characters cartoonish in their exaggerations of emotion. The film does a good job of portraying the struggles that occur in the lives of artists. But also, the struggles that occur in the life of an everyday person. Despite these artists being well known, and their emotional struggles were well documented through their art, the story can still be related to many people today. Those struggling in their relationships, and those struggling to make a career out of something they love can look up to stories like these. Despite the couple having issues with alcoholism and living in poverty, the couple was able to look past their problems and work on them together, creating a strong relationship and working through all their issues. Noriko was able to learn to deal with Ushio’s drinking and eventually Ushio had to stop altogether (Which was a blessing to Noriko) The film also shows the struggles of doing what one loves despite the hardships that occur. Noriko always dreamed of being an artist and despite poverty and having to put her career on hold, Noriko was able to make it as an artist and became famous for what she does. This movie overall is a great movie with many life lessons to teach while also telling the life story of artists not known to the general population. I would recommend this movie to all people who are willing to experience something new and have an interest in art. I believe that the director did a great job directing the movie and telling the story accurately of Cutie and the Boxer while adding a flair that would inspire even Noriko Shinohara.
