The Korean “Gamblerz” crew practicing in the gym the day before the Battle of the Year.

Photo by Benson Lee/Elephant Eye Films

by JAMES WOODARD, Hokubei Mainichi

Break-dancing, once the hallmark of underground urban culture, was born on the streets of New York in the ’70s. By the ’80s, it had exploded into American pop culture.

Though many thought it to be merely a passing fad, it is alive and well, even if its influence in the United States has dwindled in the past two decades. The spastic dance cousin of hip-hop has taken its place on the world stage of pop culture, with rabid fans and B-boy crews (teams of break-dancers) coming from every corner of the globe to converge in Braunschweig, Germany for the world championship of break-dancing.

Benson Lee’s thrilling new documentary “Planet B-Boy,” which just won the award for best documentary at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, follows five groups of dancers as they train and compete for the “World Cup of Breakdancing.” The film is opening at Bay Area Landmark Theaters in San Francisco and Berkeley.

Lee’s film is more than a documentary on a dance form. He follows five B-boy crews from around the world as they not only compete for a prize and bragging rights, but deal with issues of family and societal acceptance.

Lee, a Korean American independent film director, had loved break-dancing as a kid. Films like “Wild Style,” “Beat Street” and “Breakin’ ” spawned a generation of dancers.

“Back in the ’80s I was one of those kids who saw the movies and just had to try it right away, but at the time I didn’t really have a community of B-boys around me, so I was more of a closeted break dancer,” Lee said during the SFIAAFF. “I wasn’t very good, of course. I was just playing in the mirror slow-mo and just trying to emulate the moves, but I was completely mesmerized by the dance. And then it just died all of a sudden. They stopped making the movies, so I went off and became a filmmaker.”

His interest in the project, as well as his love of break-dancing, was rekindled a decade later after watching the 1983 film “Flashdance.” After wondering where break-dancing had gone, Lee searched the Web only to find out that it had caught on in other parts of the world. “It was called B-boying, first of all. I never even knew that. And secondly that it was all around the world.”

There are also explosive performances from Japanese crew Ichigeki, who practice just about anywhere they can, from tourist-packed Tokyo, to subway platforms, to an incredible homage to the “Flashdance” shot in Osaka, that gives a 21st-century twist on one of the more iconic dance scenes from the ’80s classic. Fans of the film will instantly recognize the scene.

There are some intensely touching moments between the young men in the film and their parents. One young man in a Paris suburb defies his parents and challenges their racist attitudes by joining a B-boy crew called Phase-T, made up of predominantly black dancers. This kid is also half the size of the other dancers, but does some mesmerizing moves that earn him the respect of his crew.

Another thread is of a young Korean whose father works for the government promoting patriotism. Hip-hop is not well regarded in conservative South Korea, and with the looming reality of conscription (Korea is still technically at war, so all young men must serve two years in the armed forces) many of these dancers work extra hard to be the best they can. Dancing is not allowed in the army.

“If you take a break, you lose all your skills. One reason that I wanted to make the doc is that the Koreans just came out of nowhere,” Lee said. “Traditionally when a new country is added to the event, they always end up in last or second to last place because they’re so new. But the Koreans came in 2001, they came in second. And everyone was like ‘Who are the Koreans?’ ”

It was the surprise placement of these upstarts that gave Lee the story he needed to pursue this film.

He also follows Katsunori Kakiguchi of Ichigeki and his family’s tea business, as Katsu works in the family shop in Osaka with his mother. He loves dancing. But he also wants to be accepted by his family and supported in his artistic endeavors. Be sure to bring a hankie for some of these scenes.

All of this comes to an exciting climax at the world championships, where two crews from South Korea — the previous world champions and young upstarts from the countryside — face off against powerhouse group Ichigeki, French crew Phase-T, and Knucklehead Zoo from Las Vegas.

The ending is a real shocker, sure to delight and amaze.

“Planet B-Boy” opens Friday, March 28, at Landmark’s Lumiere Theatre, 1572 California St., San Francisco, (415) 276-4893; and at Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, (510) 464-5980.

For more about the film, visit www.planetbboy.com on the Web.

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