Imagine a 19x19 wooden board in front of you. There are black and white round stones; you choose one. You and your opponent place your stones on the board until it's completely full and one of you has more territory than the other. I guess this is the basic idea of the game of Go, which I learned from my nearly two hours watching the South Korean drama film The Match. The film tells the story of two legendary champions, student and master, Lee Chang-ho and Cho Hoon-hyun.
The film begins with Cho returning home as a national pride after defeating the world champion in a tournament in Singapore. A moment that changed his life and the game of Baduk in South Korea. Soon, Cho meets a young man named Lee Chang-ho. Seeing his deep interest in the strategic game and his calculating mind, Cho decides to take him on as a student. The film follows the dramatic confrontation between mentor and student over the course of a decade.
Director: Hyeong-ju Kim
Writer: Hyeong-ju Kim
Stars: Lee Byung-hun, Yoo Ah-in, Hyun Bong-sik
For many of us, the game of Go is an idea that has crossed our minds at some point, but we have completely forgotten. If you've been lucky enough to play it, you might enjoy watching these two men try to uncover the game within, but for someone who hasn't held the pieces or touched the board, The Match can be somewhat tedious, if not downright boring. Take, for example, a series like The Queen's Gambit, which brings a mental game like chess to life through engaging narrative and character analysis that keeps you hooked on the protagonist's whys and wherefores.
However, I realize that The Match suffers from the same problem as many biopics or films based on true events: trying to get inside the heads of the people they're about. What I mean is, if someone bothered to look up these players online or watch a short documentary, they'd find the same information this film offers, which isn't much. Sure, we see a bit of back-and-forth between the two champions—a master struggling after losing to his prodigy and a student who can't bear the thought of defeating his master—but will that be enough to sustain an hour and fifty minutes? I'm not entirely sure.
The best thing about the film is definitely the acting, and it's interesting because usually, when a film isn't great, the first thing people mention is that the actors were great, but the film was mediocre. I'm not saying The Match is a completely bad film; it isn't; there have been much worse films, but when it comes to a subject like this, it becomes a little difficult to maintain the excitement if you don't make the most of the drama in the plot. Lee Byung-Hun is excellent as the reigning champion Cho Hoon-Hyun. He's equal parts melancholic and exciting, giving depth to a character who needs all the help he can get to truly stand out as a person. It's not that the character presentation isn't descriptive; it just seems a little lacking, you know? What I'm saying is, I wish I had more to work with, because he's great to watch.
Kim Kang-Hoon looks very different today than he did in this film, as it was shot about four years ago. It's a shame he only appeared in the first 20 minutes, because he's fantastic as Chang-Ho, but, of course, he's too young to be playing him as an adult. Yoo Ah-In plays the adult version of Chang-Ho, and I think we can move away from the controversy a bit and appreciate the man's ability to look like a kid at 38. Okay, but seriously, we've always appreciated him as an actor, so I guess he's lived up to his reputation in this one.
I think where the film shines is in how it shows the "Go" sequences. There are some interesting angles, cuts, and zooms that make the game look quite intriguing, I suppose, if you know what's going on. But I don't think that's enough to say this film is great. I suppose being set in the 1980s and 1990s, you can apply a warm tone that almost makes it look sepia, but not quite. I think this works for this film, which aims to give us a nostalgic feeling. There are some very clear shots of the "Go" games, giving us the perspective of the players, the press, other players, and casual spectators in the heat of the moment.
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