Directed by Moon Hyun-Sung and written by Yoo Young-Ha and Kwon Sung-Hwi, the Korean movie “As One” tells the story of the joint North-South Korean national table tennis team. The film starts off at a table tennis match where South Korea’s top player Hyun Jung-Hwa (Ha Ji-Won) beats North Korea’s top player Lee Boon-Hee (Bae Doo-Na) but comes in second to China’s best, Deng Yaping (Kim Jae-Hwa). Few months later, as Hyun and her teammates get ready to leave for the 41st World Table Tennis Championships, which will take place in Chiba, Japan, they learn that they will be joined by the North Korean players to form a single unit, Team Korea, led by North Korea’s Jo Nam-Poong (Kim Eung-Soo) as the head trainer.
As the story progresses, there are many relationships that develop. At first, both sides are suspicious and uncomfortable with each other. However, Lee’s roommate, Yoo Soon-Bok (Han Ye-Ri), gets very nervous during her games because it is her first time as a member of the national team. Because of her instability, Yoo volunteers to give her spot as Lee’s partner to Hyun so that the team can have a chance at gold. Due to the sudden change, Hyun and Lee struggle to get along and work together.
Despite the traits that make it very touching, this movie still has the traits that make it kind of like any other movie. It has the typical love-line between two members of the team; South Korea’s adorable Choi Yeon-Jung (Choi Yoon-Young) falls for North Korea’s hot-tempered Choi Kyung-Sub (Lee Jong-Suk). Also, because this movie is based on a true event in Korean history, some of the scenes of the tournament are overly dramatized. But, some of these scenes make the movie all the more touching. Some of the scenes were very inspirational. For example, in one scene, the players are gathered around a map of Korea and Lee is asked that the dividing line suggests. She answers that it is the DMZ line. Then, Hyun is asked that the map suggests once it’s on the floor; she answers that it is a table tennis court. This shows the unification and bond between the players.
The best part of the movie is the cast. Each star portrays and fits the images of competitive table tennis players. Actresses Ha Ji-Won and Bae Doo-Na were specially trained by former table tennis player Hyun Jun-Hwa herself. For Ha Ji-Won, this movie was the first time she played table tennis while Bae Doo-Na had to learn to play left-handed to perfectly portray Lee Boon-Hee’s playing style. The actors and actresses playing the roles of the North Korean players had to practice their dialects; they each practiced hard to match the regional dialects of each individual player. All the cast members’ hard work did not go to waste because the movie had great results. Released on May 3rd, 2012, the film had to go against Hollywood movies such as “The Avengers” and “Dark Shadows” in the Korean theaters. However, despite the strong competition, “As One” still achieved around 1.2 million views in the first 10 days prior to its release.
It was a great movie! I loved it and I liked how you did not give away the plot but gave a good scene (the one with the map of Korea) to tantalize readers. Good review.