“Baseball had been Japan’s favorite sport for decades by the time [I Will Buy You] was released. Kobayashi fully intended to shock viewers with his takedown of the beloved institution. . . . The film is told from the perspective of and narrated by Kishimoto (Keiji Sada), a ruthless scout hot to sign the up-and-coming college player Kurita (Minoru Oki) to the major-league Toyo Flowers. . . . There’s little sports-film catharsis in I Will Buy You—and relatively little baseball. Most of the interactions are pitched like boardroom negotiations, shot by Kobayashi with clinical detachment and often in ominous shadow.”