FOURTH PLACE

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FOURTH PLACE

Oct 20, 2020

Writer by Pierce Conran
View1636

2015 | 119 MIN | Drama

DIRECTOR JUNG Ji-woo

CAST PARK Hae-joon, LEE Hang-na, YOO Jae-sang, CHOI Moo-sung, JUNG Ga-ram

RELEASE DATE April 13, 2016

CONTACT Finecut

Tel +82 2 569 8777

Fax +82 2 569 6662

Email cineinfo@finecut.co.kr

Known for Happy End (1999) and Eungyo (2012), veteran director JUNG Ji-woo stepped out of his commercial cinema comfort zone to shoot the low-budget drama Fourth Place (2016). Commissioned by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, the swimming coming of age drama debuted at the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in the Korean Cinema Today-Panorama section in 2015.

In the late 1990s, Gwang-su (JUNG Ga-ram) is a top swimmer competing for Korea at the Asian Games, but his arrogance and drinking quickly lead to his downfall, when he is suddenly kicked off the team and denied a chance to compete after going AWOL during training. In the present day, the 11-year-old Joon-ho (YOO Jae-sang) has his own aspirations of becoming a professional swimmer and his interest is strenuously supported by his devoted mother (LEE Hang-na). The only problem is that he keeps placing fourth in competitions, to the increasing exasperation of his mother. After hearing a rumor of a special coach who guarantees results but whose methods may be unorthodox, she seeks out the grown-up Gwang-su (PARK Hae-soo). At first, Gwang-su doesn’t take Joon-ho seriously but when he’s finally convinced that he has a desire to succeed, he trains him the only way he knows how - beat him until he gets results. Pleased at Joon-ho’s improving record, his mother turns a blind eye when she sees his bruises, but her husband (CHOI Moo-sung), a journalist who knew Gwang-su in his youth, doesn’t share her unshakeable enthusiasm.

Mirroring Director JUNG’s own move to the indie realm, the enduring symbol in Fourth Place (2016) is of a swimmer, Joon-ho, breaking out of his lane, either when he tries to follow the mottled light leading to the other side of the people, or when he is trying to escape the violent fury of his coach. JUNG’s film deals with the drive to succeed and the sacrifices people endure to conform and reach the top of the pile. But this much sought after success exists only within a very narrow definition. For most of the film, Joon-ho’s mother is far more driven and obsessed about his success than he is, and she is only too willing to sacrifice her own dignity and ultimately her son’s safety for him to achieve success, which she believes would ensure his scholastic future and thus keep him in plenty for life.

Seeking to highlight various social ills in Korean society, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea began commissioning films in the early 2000s, first with the omnibus If You Were Me, which started in 2003 and now counts six instalments, and then with the acclaimed indies Juvenile Offender (2012) and Maggie (2019). Fourth Place (2016) focuses on the intense pressure and competition that exist for youths in Korea, who are often pushed to extremes in order to get ahead, get in to good schools and land jobs at good companies. Drawing from their own experiences of corporeal abuse when they grew up, parents can still go too far even though they only want the best for their children.

Joon-ho’s struggle may highlight a dark aspect of society, but his capacity to transgress, to cross over into another lane, is ultimately his salvation. The true triumph in Fourth Place (2016) comes not when Joon-ho finally reaches places first, but when he decides to succeed on his own terms. He breaks the cycle of abuse and abandons his coach and his mother, and yet he finds a way forward without giving up on his dream, a dream which, ironically, only grows stronger through his difficult experience.

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