FILM
REVIEW When ping-pong diplomacy stirred
Korea KOREA, directed by Moon Hyun-sung
Reviewed by Kosuke
Takahashi
TOKYO - Two decades have passed
since the end of the Cold War, but Korea still
remains divided at the 38th parallel. Without
having signed a peace treaty after the Korean War
ended in 1953, North and South Korea are still
technically at war.
For Pyongyang, the
head of its neighboring state is a key target in
its smear campaigns. In recent months, North
Korean state media has even stepped up its
rhetoric against the "traitorous" South Korean
President Lee Myung-bak, branding him a "rabid
dog" or a "rat" or a "tiger moth".
Meanwhile, on May 5 - Children's Day - Lee
likened the North to a "bad and disobedient child"
for ignoring voices in the international
community calling for a
halt to its launch of a long-range rocket last
month.
Though North Korea is ramping up
the war of words amid suspicions it is gearing up
for a third nuclear test , young people in Seoul
seem not too interested in North-South issues.
They hardly feel a sense of solidarity and kinship
with North Korea in their daily lives.
Wanting to make a difference in this
regard and raise questions about such mutual
mistrust within the same race, Moon Hyun-sung has
made the movie known as As One in English
and KOREA in Korean. Moon's directorial
debut, the film hit theaters in South Korea on May
3.
Based on a real event, the film retells
how South and North Korea formed a unified
national sports team for the 41st world table
tennis championships held in Chiba, near Tokyo in
1991.
Defying expectations, the joint team
beat the most likely champions, China, which was
trying to win the world title for the ninth
consecutive year.
"I thought the only
beautiful event in North-South relations was the
story of those athletes [in the table tennis
championships in 1991]," said Moon of his
motivations to make film at a sneak preview in
Chiba on April 20. "I have been interested in
table tennis since my childhood and I was a fan of
Hyun Jung-hwa." Hyun is the legendary South Korean
female table tennis player on whom the movie
is centered around.
The film is not just a
sports flick or underdog's tale, rather it's
closer to famous South Korean movies Shiri
and JSA, which focused on human
relationships between the South and the North. It
draws on strong Korean national sentiment and
revives North-South solidarity by dramatizing a
human-interest story of the top athletes of the
two nations, who had great conflicts, tensions and
suspense during the 46 days when the team was
temporarily formed for the tournament.
In
the movie, one North Korean male player became
subject to serious punishment by the ruling Korean
Workers' Party (KWP), simply because he received a
name card from the team coach of a Western team.
North Korea's dominant party viewed it as an
asylum bid.
Also, North Korea's athletes
were forcibly ordered to leave Chiba and go back
to Pyongyang immediately by the KWP just one day
before their final match with China, because the
government's "minders," or surveillance agents,
who always escorted their athletes, said the
players had become too immersed in Western
culture, drinking alcohol and interacting with
South Korean players privately.
Two of
South Korea's du jour marquee actresses in
their early 30s enrich a heartwarming masterpiece
based on a true story. Ha Ji-won, a sexy action
star who is often compared with American actress
Angelina Jolie, played the role of South Koreans
national sports heroine Hyun Jung-hwa. And actress
Bae Doo-na, known for her sublime performances,
represents North Korea's top female table tennis
player Li Bun-hui.
Asked whether the movie
would have an impact on young South Koreans, who
are often indifferent about relations with the
North, Ha said, "I was very impressed by the
process of how the two became one in the 46 days.
I think the young people will be also impressed by
it."
Bae echoed Ha's views. "It's true the
younger generation are not interested in North
Korea, but I believe this movie could change
things," said Bae, who skillfully recreated the
blank expressions of the North's top player and
uses North Korean language in the movie.
Thanks to South Korean table tennis player
Hyun Jung-hwa's actual coaching, the portrayal of
the athletes is unerringly accurate. Ha said she
practiced table tennis 12 hours a day for a month
in a sweltering gymnasium.
It's notable
that behind the success of the unified Korean team
was the late Ichiro Ogimura, a former Japanese
table tennis player who visited South Korea 20
times and North Korea 14 times for negotiations to
help realize the much-anticipated Korean joint
team. He was president of the International Table
Tennis Federation and died in 1994. Without
Ogimura, this movie would have never had a tale to
tell.
In some respects the film reminds of
the "ping pong diplomacy" in the early 1970s,
which saw the exchange of table tennis players
between the United States and the People's
Republic of China. This marked a thaw in US-China
relations that paved the way for a visit to
Beijing by president Richard Nixon.
Perhaps it would be asking too much to
expect KOREA to have such a far-reaching
impact as a thaw in ties between North and South
Korea, bit its a small step in the right
direction.
Kosuke Takahashi is a
Tokyo-based Japanese journalist. His twitter is
@TakahashiKosuke
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Wanting to make a difference in this
regard and raise questions about such mutual
mistrust within the same race, Moon Hyun-sung has
made the movie known as As One in English
and KOREA in Korean. Moon's directorial
debut, the film hit theaters in South Korea on May
3. 
