New Delhi, Oct. 11 -- Don't buy that bowl, I muttered, as Dwayne Johnson cradled it in his huge hands. It's a Japanese bowl and will obviously break at some point, and will then be repaired by someone who can't quite pronounce 'kintsugi' but says it anyway, upon which Oscar voters will have their minds blown by the realization that you're a broken man who needs putting together.

Anyway, Mark Kerr buys the bowl. He's an MMA fighter at the turn of the century, a pioneer in a sport that's still finding its feet. Japan hosts the biggest tournament, and he's a big deal there-though not so much back home in America, where he patiently explains mixed martial arts to an old lady in a doctor's waiting room. The gentleness with which he does so is...