Review: An unknown, hooded man walks down a corridor towards a ring. Closer, men scream from all sides as they wave money in their hands. Dogs are held back by their leashes, barking uncontrollably. The mysterious man steps inside the ring and finally reveals himself as El Yanqui. Ferociousness and melancholy are the mixed expressions across his face, but beneath, there is a subtle hint of lost.

This lost, which has haunted him over the previous five years, is the lost of his past and the memories. With only “Marianne” tattooed on his chest as a clue to his history, El Yanqui continues to fight in order to rediscover himself, unleashing his demons upon his opponents if only to surface the goodness underneath he so desperately needs.

El Yanqui soon spots a woman who might be the means to retriggering the thoughts of his former life. Immediately, we are brought back five years earlier before the legacy of “El Yanqui” and mere moments after the incident that caused his memory loss. Bloodied and beaten, he is found by Manolo, a man with his own troubled past, and takes the future El Yanqui under his arms.

Behind all the brutal fighting, PIT FIGHTER is primarily about salvation and the journey to reach it. While it might seem superfluous to achieve spiritual rescue through such primal means, El Yanqui’s fighting ability is the only connection to his past and he hopes with each battle won, a little bit of his humanity will be delivered back to him. Though, on the softer side, what ends up helping El Yanqui the most is his newfound friendship in Manalo. As their friendship grows, they use each other as a way to help find the missing pieces in their lives. Obviously, El Yanqui searches for his past and Manolo attempts to find a future for himself. The development remains simple, only giving each other enough emotionally to continue on, while still staying secretive to each other until the very end.