A question about Gaea Girls, the 2000 documentary

[Ship Canal]

I imagine a large chunk of those that hang out here at PWO have seen Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams 2000 documentary film Gaea Girls.

For those that haven't, its a feature length documentary on the trainees under Chigusa Nagayo and a set of more senior trainees, some of whom have already made their debut. Most memorably these seniors include Meiko Satomura, who in one particularly notorious scene shoot dropkicks a young wrestler in the face, splitting her lip open and leaving her a bloody mess, for the crime of not having managed to perfect the requisite emotional fire/physical believability.

Its an early example of the recurring themes in Longinotto's films which have always had a theme running through them of women in particularly trying and gruelling situations and are often very powerful indictments of misogyny/gender based oppression - the film concludes with Nagayo's testimony that her rigidly patriarchal upbringing contributed to her sometimes brutal (certainly to 2016 eyes) physical and emotional treatment of her charges.

My question for those who have seen the film and might have a better knowledge of Japanese society and pro wrestlings place within it though is this:

 

Throughout the film both Nagayo and Satomura, when training the young wrestlers, repeatedly discuss methods and techniques as if the work is real and taking place within the confines of a non predetermined competition: "she just hit you, you need to fight back, you can't do that in a real fight", "You are lucky that was me and not another wrestler, they would have killed you", "you can't flail around on the bottom, they'll know you are up to something" etc etc.

Is this just a difficulty in Japanese to English translation, with the Japanese speakers talking in metaphors and not really making out the "fight" is real per se, more just talking in terms of "fight back" = fire/fighting spirit, "no flailing around"=no over the top selling and so on? Or was there an element (a la some old school US territories) of only smartening workers up to the true nature of the business in a piecemeal, sort of need to know basis? Or are the trainers and wrestlers simply maintaining kayfabe due to the presence of the film crew?

I've always been fascinated by how that dynamic worked ever since I first saw the film when the BBC showed it one late night not long after it was made and I stumbled across it channel hopping.

Here is a link to the film for anyone who hasn't seen it

[WrestlingPower]

I always assumed it was said in a "fight back", "show toughness" kind of way but you bring up some interesting nuances on how it could be interpreted. I can't imagine someone in that deep not being at least clued in somewhat even if they had to earn the right for people to loosen up with them.