MARATHON

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MARATHON

Nov 28, 2017

Writer by Pierce Conran
View2774

2005｜117 MIN | Drama

DIRECTOR CHUNG Yoon-chul

CAST CHO Seung-woo, KIM Mee-sook, LEE Ki-young, BAEK Sung-hyun

RELEASE DATE January 27, 2005

CONTACT Showbox

Tel : +82 2 3218 5640

Fax : +82 2 3444 6688

Email : sales@showbox.co.kr

Few people have debuted in Korea with quite the bang that director CHUNG Yoon-chul did, when his heartrending drama Marathon became a surprise hit early in 2005. The Lunar New Year champion of that year (upsetting the presumed winner Another Public Enemy), the film also elevated CHO Seung-woo to stardom and became the main player during that year’s awards season, winning seven accolades from the Daejong Film Awards, among several other events.

Kyung-sook (KIM Mee-sook) raises her son Cho-won (CHO Seung-woo) alone and fights through the frustrations of his autism until she finds a way to channel is energy and running. After winning a bronze medal in a 10km competition, Cho-won is pushed to train for a marathon. He does with the grumpy former runner Jeong-wook (LEE Ki-young), who also questions the real intentions behind Kyung-sook’s ambitions for her son.

Part of sports film, family drama and inspirational melodrama, Marathon has become one of the archetypal Korean tearjerkers that few have been able to emulate since and which have become increasingly rare on Korean marquees. At the time of its release, international attention was squarely focused on the likes of PARK Chan-wook, BONG Joon-ho and KIM Jee-woon and their dark blends of genre and thrills, but at home, the box office told a different story as a much wider spectrum of films were enjoyed by the public.

Following a simple but well-balanced triangle of relationships, CHUNG’s debut is effective primarily because it devotes itself to its characters, for the most part avoiding excess subplots. Part of this is the result of his lengthy preparation for the project, which included around two years of interviews with BAE Hyoung-jin and his mother, the real life inspirations between the family pair at the heart of his film.

Undoubtedly, this tale would never have worked without CHO’s acclaimed performance as the young runner. Though a seasoned actor (he got his start in IM Kwon-taek’s Chunhyang in 2000), CHO was still relatively unknown by the broader public. Today he is one of the industry’s most reliable names, having recently appeared in the blockbusters Inside Men and Assassination and this year’s popular new drama Stranger alongside BAE Doo-na.

Director CHUNG stuck with the family drama mold for his next project Skeletons in the Closet (2007) before teaming up with HWANG Jung-min, playing another character afflicted with mental illness in A Man Who Was Superman (2008). More recently, CHUNG changed the tack as he took on the period battle film Warriors of the Dawn for 20th Century Fox Korea this year.

Proving its appeal as a sophisticated drama, Marathon was quickly optioned as a remake, breathing life again as a TV drama on the Japanese network TBS in 2007.

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