Champion

The film tells the life of the Korean boxer Kim Deuk-gu. He was born into a poor family. He saw boxing as the way out of it. He worked his way up the ladder step by step. In the end he earned a shot at a world title. In November 1982 he entered the ring in Las Vegas. Across from him was the lightweight champion Ray Mancini. The fight was a hard one and it went long. In the fourteenth round Kim went down. He got up, but the referee stopped the fight. Soon afterwards he lost consciousness. He had suffered a brain haemorrhage. Four days later he died. His death led to changes in the rules of boxing. Yu Oh-seong and Chae Min-seo appear in the hundred and fifteen minute film, a South Korean production Kwak Kyung-taek finished in 2002.