Take Off - 國家代表

Take Off (國家代表) is a 2009 film out of Korea. The movie stars Ha Jung-Woo, Kim Dong-Wook, Kim Ji-Seok, Choi Jae-Hwan, Lee Jae-Eung, Song Dong-Il, and Lee Eun-Seong. The supporting casts included Lee Se-Rang, Lee Hye-Suk, Lee Han-Wi, and Hwang Ha-Na.

The story is based in the 90s starting with a variety show where adopted Koreans are coming back to find their birth parents. Bob, played by Ha Jung Woo, is back looking for his parents. Bob and his sister were adopted to the US when they were elementary school age. Bob still remembers his mother. But Bob is unable to find his birth mother. Bob was kicked off the US alpine team just a few years prior to his return to Korea. The local ski-jumping coach takes notice and recruits Bob to join the team and to train the other members. The coach puts together a rag tag team of former rejects. If they win the gold, they will all get a apartment as a reward. The year is 1996 and they work to make it to the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. Will the drama between the coach and team of misfits allow them to chase the gold?

If you look at the history books, there was no Korean team for the 1998 Nagano Ski-jumping competition. So, the story is based on fiction, but rooted in the reality of the Korean team. The team is still very much a rag tag team these days. But the movie takes the real life situations and adds drama elements that makes for a very compiling story. You'll notice that there's quite a fair amount of English spoken in this film and Ha Jung Woo's English is quite stiff, but is passable.

I good take on a real story, but based completely in drama elements. I was drawn in to the characters and their apparent shortcomings right away. Although the movie started to drag in the middle, when the competitions started, I was on board again.