AFFD

by Steve Norwood

It’s hard not to be touched at some point by TAKE OFF, the heartfelt South Korean equivalent of any Hollywood sports drama where a team of underdogs train for a Big Event, overcoming adversity and low expectations.  The film gets extra points for being inspired by True Big Events.

A year before the 1998 Winter Olympics, in an effort to gain more attention for their bid to have the 2002 games held in Seoul,  the Korean Olympic committee created a new ski jumping team.   With a Korean-American adoptee as their captain (and the only member with any professional sports experience), no one seemed to have much faith in the rag-tag group of former alpine skiers (who had never jumped before). 

When the film isn’t delving into their growing (though somewhat begrudging) camaraderie, finding moments of humor between training montages, it hints at the troublesome parts of their lives that perhaps a gold medal might eradicate.  Bob, the captain, is actively searching for his birth mother after living most of his life in the United States; Heung is a former junkie and club waiter who falls for the coach’s daughter, who appears to be small-time con artist when not leeching off her father; Jae works in his oppressive father’s restaurant and is in love with a (taboo) Chinese waitress; Chil hopes that success will allow him to better take care of his deaf grandmother and retarded younger brother Bong, who acts as a reserve member of the team and a sort of good luck charm/cheerleader/plot driving force.  It’s only a matter of time before bonds strengthen between the young men, and just when the team’s opportunity seems to be lost, they find themselves going to the Olympics.

If only the film focused on just the team’s creation and the games, as that would be enough for a solid, rousing drama.   But TAKE OFF makes a habit of allowing no subplot to go unaddressed.  There are too many drawn-out moments of Bob’s emotional attempts to make a connection with the woman he thinks is his mother, and a silly scene of gangsters threatening the team after the coach’s daughter has bilked them out of their money is just unnecessary. 

But on the whole, this is a very likable – if familiar – tale, told in a very engaging fashion.  When the disaster flick HAEUNDAE was recently screened at the AMC Grapevine Mills (where a program of current Korean box-office hits is being shown), it broke attendance records (compared to domestic releases) with little publicity and no awareness other than a sturdy word-of-mouth campaign.  TAKE OFF has gotten off to a much slower start, but is an equally enjoyable film that deserves that kind of attention.

(TAKE OFF is now showing at the AMC Grapevine Mills for a limited run)