Movie Monday – Run Off (2016)

Starring: Soo Ae as Ji Won, Oh Dal Su as Coach Kang Dae-woong, Oh Yeon-seo as Park Chae-kyeong, Kim Seul-gi as Jo Mi-ran, Ha Jae-sook as Go Yeong-ja, and Kim Ye-won as Kim Ga-yeon

Rating: PG-13, some violence

Running Time: 126 min

Twinkies: 4 1/2 icy stars

Synopsis: The story was inspired by how Korean women’s national ice hockey team was formed. The movie depicts the process that the athletes with various backgrounds including a North Korean escapee, a dropout athlete from short track team, a housewife to middle school students, go through to grow and become national athletes.

Musings: I just love sports movies! I especially love them when they are based on an actual event or story. What makes this story so rare is the fact that it is about women and one of the many sports that we also excel in. In researching about the formation of the 2003 National Women’s Ice Hockey team, you cannot imagine what these women went through to get funding, uniforms and general respect. I like that in this movie you got to see just a hint of that while in actually, their trials and tribulations were much worse. But the main focus of this story was how the women from different walks of life as well as sports came together to form a team; working together to succeed in a common cause: women ice hockey.

Ji Won and Coach Kang definitely had an interesting relationship as he tried to convince her to participate in the team as well as get the necessary permissions for the women to compete. As the women were initially brought together as a “placeholder” for future players and tourneys, it was nice to watch as players and coach worked together. Soo Ae and Oh Dal Su did this very well. It was also nice to see Soo Ae in an entirely different role. For once, a totally unfeminine role as she was first and foremost an ice hockey player.

The rest of the cast were awesome in their roles. From Kim Seul-gi as Mi-ran, a somewhat smart but very useful young lady to Kim Ye-won as Ga-yeon who initially just wanted to be able to put “national athlete” on her dating resume or whatever she was doing to look for a rich husband. All of the women came into the game with little knowledge of the sport but morphed into real players by the end of the movie.

As usual, the actors in this movie spent a lot of time in learning the sport. That is the one thing I’ve always liked about Korean or just about all Asian sports movies; the actor not only act but also perform their own stunts. So when you see the women skating, it is actually them!

Overall, a pretty easy movie to watch and very entertaining. I recommend and it is family friendly for the most part. Enjoy!!

Trailer is available on on YouTube Website only. The movie is available on various streaming websites. Be on a look out!!

I’m available on Twitter. Thanks to all of you Twinkles out here who are taking the time to read! If you have a suggestion for a future review, just leave me a comment! I’m always happy to have movie suggestions.