Forever the Moment, 우리 생애 최고의 순간(Woo-ri Saeng-ae Choi-go-e Soon-gan-2008)

AKA: Our Finest Hour

Starring:
Mun So-Ri~Han Mi-sook
Kim Jeong-Eun~Song Jeong-ran
Uhm Tae-Woong~Ahn Seung-pil
Jo Eun-Ji~Oh Soo-hee

Han Mi-Sook (Moon So-ri) is a handball veteran and a member of the Korean national team. However, the times when the national team was an opponent to be feared are long over. Mi-Sook decides to retire from handball and work in a supermarket to be able to support herself and her son, while her husband is always on the run from the debt-collectors he borrowed a large amount of money from.

In the meantime the handball team is assigned a new coach, former player Kim Hye-kyeong (Kim Jeong-eun), who just finished coaching a team in Japan. Hye-kyeong, along with loudmouth Song Jeong-ran (Kim Ji-young) and the young goalie Oh Soo-hee (Jo Eun-ji), would love to have Mi-Sook on the team as well. After a lot of to and fro and much persuasion she rejoins the team, only to see Hye-kyeong demoted from coach to fellow player because the training sessions don't seem to bringing about the desired progress.

Handball whiz Ahn Seung-pil (Eom Tae-woong) is appointed as the new coach and promptly begins applying modern European training methods in order to shape up the team. He must soon learn that, in order to have a breath of a chance at the Olympic Games in Athens 2004, team spirit is much more important than any modern training method. Miraculously however, the team manages to fight its way to the final match and plays one of the best games of the entire event...



Where to start? This movie was quite good. The all-American, sport, tear-jerker, overcome-all-odds, come-to-kick-European-ass type movie. LOL! Except these weren't Americans, but South Korean ladies handball nationalists. I had a hard time reminding myself not to yell "U.S.A" throughout the Olympic episodes. LOL! A very moving, emotional experience. Mi-sook overcoming debt, a disappearing husband, taking care of her son alone. Yeah, you'll tear up a bit. Had to love the coach. Hate'm at first then you'll come to love'm later. My only qualm with this movie was that there wasn't more in-depth discussion of the relationship of Ahn Seung-pil and Song Jeung-ran. Ehh, but they weren't really the main focus. The movie does start quite slowly as to establish characters but once the Olympics start, it moves at quite a fast pace. A totally feel good movie and you'll love the real footage at the end of the real South Korean Women's handball team. Quite moving. *prepare tissue for tear onslaught*

Uhm Tae Woong