As One (film)
| As One | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Hangul | |
| Revised Romanization | Koria |
| McCune–Reischauer | K‘oria |
| Directed by | Moon Hyun-sung |
| Produced by | Lee Su-nam Kim Ji-hoon Lee Han-seung Min Jong-eun |
| Written by | Kwon Seong-hwi Yoo Young-ah |
| Starring |
Ha Ji-won Bae Doona |
| Music by | Kim Tae-seong |
| Cinematography | Jo Dong-heon |
| Edited by | Kim Sun-min |
| Distributed by | CJ Entertainment |
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Release date
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Running time
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127 minutes |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | Korean |
| Box office | US$11,794,204 |
As One (Hangul: 코리아; RR: Koria; lit. "Korea") is a 2012 South Korean sports drama film starring Ha Ji-won and Bae Doona. It is a cinematic retelling of the first ever post-war Unified Korea sports team which won the gold at the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships in Chiba, Japan. Director Moon Hyun-sung used the foundation of true events to tell the story of a team that united a divided nation for the first time in its painful history.
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 Korean peninsula. The summit ended with the agreement to hastily 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 two players who had only ever met across the table as die-hard opponents must suddenly become true partners and teammates in time for the biggest stage of the World Championships. Putting aside their individual ambitions, these women have to summon every ounce of grit and grace to defeat a dominating Chinese team that is vying for its 9th consecutive World Championship title.
Beijing, 11th Asian Games, autumn 1990. In the women's table tennis competition, North Korea's Ri Bun-hui (Bae Doona) faces off against South Korea's Hyun Jung-hwa (Ha Ji-won); Bun-hui loses, but Jung-hwa is beaten by China's Deng Yaping (Kim Jae-hwa), who takes the gold. Six months later, in Busan, Jung-hwa is finishing her preparation for the 41st World Table Tennis Championships, to be held in Chiba, Japan; aside from caring for her father in the hospital, she is under huge local pressure to win a gold medal this time. Just prior to leaving, it is announced that, following a North-South Summit, the North and South Korean teams will compete as a single unit for the first time, under a newly designed Korean Unification Flag and with a North Korean, Jo Nam-poong (Kim Eung-soo), as its chief trainer. In Chiba, quarrels and fights break out between the two, mutually suspicious sides, exacerbated by young Northern hothead Choi Kyung-sub (Lee Jong-suk) and Southern joker Oh Doo-man (Oh Jung-se). Jung-hwa shares a room with fellow player Choi Yeon-jung (Choi Yoon-young), who fancies Kyung-sub. Bun-hui rooms with Yu Sun-bok (Han Ye-ri) who suffers badly from competition nerves. During the trials for the women's team, Sun-bok performs poorly and steps down in favor of Jung-hwa for the good of the team. Now paired together, Jung-hwa and Bun-hui settle their differences as the players finally start to bond. As they train for 46 days, game-by-game, the two find a budding friendship. But as the finals versus the Chinese team looms, the Koreans' unity is threatened from another direction. When political winds change again and just as suddenly an announcement is made to disband team Korea, the two young women must prove to their people and the world that teamwork can outshine the dark shadows of a painful history.
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