Dream

Hong-dae is a former footballer whose career is suspended, not for anything on the pitch but for a fight that made the news. His agent finds him a job to repair his image: coach a national team made up of homeless men and take them to the Homeless World Cup. So-min, the director assigned to film the process as a documentary, has no interest in the team or in football; all she wants is to finish the job. Lee Byeong-heon writes and directs. Park Seo-joon plays Hong-dae and IU plays So-min. The Homeless World Cup is a real tournament, held since 2003, and South Korea sends a team. The film is drawn from one such Korean squad. Lee Byeong-heon is known as a comedy writer and the first half is built accordingly: the characters are types, the jokes are fast, the emotional weight is delayed. In the second half the tone changes and it moves into the sports film template. Every expected stage arrives in order, and the film never departs from it. The size of the cast does not help. Most of the players are defined by a single trait and their stories go unfinished. Who it is for: viewers who like Korean sports comedy and team films drawn from real events. Who it is not for: the emotional manipulation is plain, the template is entirely familiar, and homelessness stays on the surface.