The Calamari Wrestler [DVD] [2004]

An amphibious fighter takes on the world of wrestling in this offbeat comedy from Japan. Kogi Taguchi is a professional wrestler who, after years of struggle, has finally won the championship belt in a hard-fought match -- only to have the prize stolen from him moments later by a gigantic squid. Suddenly forced to defend his title against an eight-armed grappler, Kogi senses this is no ordinary battling squid, while his girlfriend Miyako finds herself strangely attracted to the aquatic brawler. As it happens, there's a semi-reasonable explanation for all this...Iwata, a wrestler who discovered he had only a short time to live, traveled to Pakistan, where rogue healers cured his malady by turning him into a mammoth squid. Can the eight-armed Iwata win fair and square in a legitimate rematch against Kogi? And can a guy with lots of grippers on his tentacles stand a chance at romance with a gal like Miyako? Calamari Wrestler was written and directed by Minoru Kawasaki, an independent filmmaker fond of describing himself as "Edward D. Wood Jr. with talent."~Mark Deming