A Stalker's Guide to Ji Chang Wook
What are you doing on weekends? Exercising? Then you might also like to watch sports movies. Sport-related movies are not really popular in South Korea. However, there are good ones that not only tell sport stories, but also show humans' lives, dreams, struggles, and triumphs.
Country: South Korea Year: 2012 Genre: Drama, Sports
This movie is based on a real life event when the North and South Korean table-tennis teams united to fight for medals and honors at the 1991 Chiba World Table Tennis Championship. Ha Ji Won plays Hyun Jung Hwa, a South Korean female table-tennis star. While Bae Doo Na plays Kim Bon Hee, a North Korean ace. They used to play against each other in every tournament, but have never been able to beat Chinese players. Meanwhile, the top officials decide to unite the Korean teams and although at first the players oppose, they grow fond of each other during their time together.
Jung Wu Sang (Lee Jong Suk), a national swimming athlete, is given a punishment because of a scandal. He should enter a swimming club to start his career once again. There, he meets Jo Won Il (Seo In Guk). Won Il’s passion and talent at swimming motivate Wu Sang to do better. At the same time, Wu Sang also meets Jung Eun (Kwon Yu Ri), long-time friend of Won Il. Rivalries in love and swimming ensue.
I concede I watched this movie primarily because of Lee Jong Suk. However, Seo In Guk won me over with his naïve and funny portrayal of Won Il. Jo Won Il is really not interested at studying and the thing he only cares about is food. It’s funny watching Seo In Guk munch everything in front of him. Lee Jong Suk acting stoic and haughty is not really impressive. Kwon Yu Ri of SNSD is serviceable, although the story could do without her since her sole purpose is to be in a love triangle. Nonetheless, No Breathing is a good movie to pass the weekend whilst you ogling at Korea’s hottest men.
The movie tells of the growth and personal struggles of Yoon Cho Won (Jo Seung Woo) as an autistic man. He has a protective mother, played by Kim Mi Sook, who teaches and dictates his life as she deems good. She pushes him to become a marathon runner and hires a coach (Lee Gi Young), a former marathon runner, to show society that her son is no different from others. As the story progresses, we witness Cho Won’s long and painful journey along with people’s growing understanding of autism, family, and human lives.
A well-written story with a slow pace, this movie slowly attached to my heart. I don’t know if it’s the writing that made me feel that way or others. The acting is top notch and Jo Seung Woo is really believable as an autistic along with his repeated words and sentences over animals or marathon. It’s maybe the most realistic portrayal out there. The rest of the cast did pretty well too. To be able to look into the world of an autistic person is wonderful and touching. Although it’s not easy, this movie may help to speak for autism to the wider world, especially in South Korea where people are downright mean and insult an autistic person. It’s a meaningful, touching and thought-provoking movie, but a bit boring because of its slow pace and laid-back story.
Well, that’s my 3 movie recommendations for sports-related movies. Although none of them are perfect, but they showed a human story tied to sports in earnest nature. Sometimes funny, sometimes romantic, but most of the time very touching and will make you cry buckets.
