As One (2012)
"Ko-ri-a" (original title)

"As One" is the cinematic retelling of the first ever post-war Unified Korea sports team, hastily formed to participate in the 41st World Table Tennis Championships in 1991. Following the ... See full summary »

Director:

Hyeon-seong Moon

Writers:

Yeong-ah Yoo (screenplay), Seong-hwi Kwon (screenplay)

Stars:

Ji-won Ha, Doona Bae, Ye-ri Han

Cast

Credited cast:
Ji-won Ha	...	Hyun Jung Hwa
Doona Bae	...	Li Bun Hui
Ye-ri Han	...	Soon-bok Yoo
Yoon Yeong Choi	...	Yeon-jeon Choi
Jong-Suk Lee	...	Choi, Kyung-Sub
Cheol-min Park	...	South Korea Head Coach
Eung-soo Kim	...	Jo Nam-Poong
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Woo-hee Cheon	...	Hyun Jung-Hwa's younger sister
Dong Hwan	...	China Assistant Coach
Liu Jang	...	Wang Ming
Jonghoon Jyung	...	China Head Coach
Jae-hwa Kim	...	Deng Yao Liang
Mike Meier	...	Foreign Table Tennis Umpire
Jeong-se Oh	...	Doo-man Oh
Cha-la Park	...	Jo Shu Ang

Storyline

"As One" is the cinematic retelling of the first ever post-war Unified Korea sports team, hastily formed to participate in the 41st World Table Tennis Championships in 1991. Following the North Korean mid-air bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 in 1987, a Summit was held between North and South Korea to defuse the extreme tension on the peninsula. The summit ended with the agreement to form a unified Korean sports team; and table tennis, being highly visible and world-class in both countries, was chosen as the symbolic unifier. Summarily, the first-ever unified North-South team under the simple aegis "KOREA" was formed to compete in the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships in Chiba, Japan. "As One" recounts these dramatic events where especially two world-class players who had only ever met across the table as die-hard opponents must suddenly become a true partners and teammates in time for the biggest stage of the World Championships. Putting aside their individual ambitions, these ...

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Plot Keywords:

one word title | based on true story

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Taglines:

This time, the color of the medal wasn't our biggest concern

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Genres:

Drama | Sport

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Details

Official Sites:

Official Blog Official site [jp]

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean Japanese

Release Date:

3 May 2012 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

As One

Company Credits

Production Co:

Tower Pictures, CJ Entertainment, Wellmade Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

127 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

User Reviews

Refreshingly naive

This is simple yarn about the North and South Korean table tennis teams reluctantly joining forces to beat the (evil) Chinese team.

The plot is very basic and the characters are fairly simplistic, yet it all works very well. The characters appear a bit foppish but having spent a little time in Eastern Asia I discovered that the youth (despite having more responsibilities than their Western counterparts) tend to have more of a child hood and are not afraid to be naive.

The 'kids' in this film have great energy and their uncomplicated outlook is refreshing when most young people in recent films (especially UK movies) tend to be drug dealers, murderers or possessed by an evil spirit. This was very refreshing.

It takes a stab at dealing with the division of Korea but this film is not equipped to handle such issues; like expecting 'Bring it on' to grapple with race relations in the U.S.

Don't expect too much depth but expect a few grins and a general sense of well being.