Tonight was the biweekly screening of Korean films at the Tribeca cinemas arranged by the Korean Cultural Service. It was the last of their sports series with a screening of Forever the Moment. Grady from the New York Asian Film Festival called it one of his favorite all time Korean films, adding that it's one of the best sports films ever made. Unfortunately due to circumstance neither Mondocurry nor myself could attend the screening. Which is annoying since I really wanted to see Grady's introduction(and knowing Grady would have been worth any price to see)
Fortunately, I foresaw the possibility and I ordered the DVD weeks ago from Yes Asia. Having the time to see the film but not the ability to see it in Manhattan I sat down, about an hour behind the screening in Manhattan and watched it in my living room.
I hate to say but Grady over sold the film. It's not a bad movie, but It's just not the top of the heap that Grady has made it out to be. Part of the problem is that it's coming after three other very good sports films, all of which have been kind of similar. Say what you will, I like Take Off and Lifting King Kong better.
This is the story of the Korean women's handball team leading up to and in the 2004 Olympics. The story follows an older player who is drafted to run the team and who brings along some of her friends as players. What happens is the the story.
It's your typical sports story of the various characters being brought together and then having to fight to stay together on their way to the big game. While the film doesn't follow the typical American pattern it does kind of follow the patterns set up in the films from the last few weeks.
It's not a bad movie, it's just not the out of the park home run that Grady has been saying it was.
To be perfectly honest I'll see the film again and report back since the film will be divorced of the hype and I can see it for what it is. For now it's a disappointment.
According to the Korean Cultural Service website the next movie is actually NEXT week with an animated film called The Story of Mr Sorry. I know nothing of the film, but it starts a cycle of animated films. In all honesty I probably won't attend since the night before I have a screening at Town Hall, and starting Thursday I'll have four straight days of screenings.
The film that follows Mr Sorry is one I've reviewed here, almost a year ago, Yobi the Five Tailed Fox. The screening is being build as a New York premiere however the film screened several years back as part of the New York International Children's Film Festival. That screens on the 15th and is worth seeing.
For now that's it. I had been hoping to add in some updates on some films and festivals, but it's late and I haven't been able to pull it all together as fast as I wanted. (Though I do want to say that either this weekend or next we'll be starting a new series that Reg is putting together which promises to take things in a slightly different direction, keep an eye out for it)
Now it's bed time, and for me it's a "school" night.
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