[HanCinema's Film Review] "No Breathing"

The promotional material for this movie proudly states that "No Breathing" is the first Korean film to be made entirely about serious competitive swimming. Actually, I'm not sure any country has made a movie about competitive swimming before, or at least not one I can remember offhand. It seems strange considering the elements are there. Just make it a sports movie like any other sports movie, and add copious camerawork of dashing handsome young men with their sexy chests in full focus.

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In terms of those particular goals, "No Breathing" accomplishes what it set out to do. The very attractive, largely male cast are able to pump out a passable coming-of-age story as two rivals duke it out to become Korea's greatest swimmer. Won-il (played by Seo In-guk) is slovenly, whiny, dim-witted and constantly eating- a true prodigy this one. Woo-sang (played by Lee Jong-suk) is smart, refined, wealthy, and crabby. Mostly because of his overbearing parents who insist he be number one. Together, they swim.

In all honesty, it actually takes awhile for them to get to the actual competitive swimming. And when they do get to that point I'm not entirely sure how- a meeting with a gang of Australians in the Phillipines is involved. Other than that it's mainly just general character arcs principally concerned with our heroes coming to term with the personal losses they've experienced in their lives. Also they bond. Somehow.

The narrative as a whole is recognizable as a sports movie and generally coherent. But it is very extremely, deliberately cut from the cloth of general character arcs and cliches. Some bits of the characterization are funny, namely the ones that deal with Won-il's rather unkempt personality. Otherwise the writing tends to be all over the place, with too many characters to keep easy track of and plot points that uncomfortably feel like they've rushed in from nowhere. Curiously, the foreshadowing is actually pretty decent- this just wasn't stuff I particularly expected or wanted to see, especially the melodrama.

The undeveloped story points are numerous. Take, for example, the other two strapping young men we see in the poster. They're just guys who are in the movie. While they do put make up half of the four-man relay out to defeat the obnoxious Australians, they have little in the way of character traits and seem to be in the story mainly just so the two actual leads have someone to talk to every once in awhile. There's also Jeong-eun (played by Kwon Yuri), who's in a three-girl band that has their own plot going on somewhere in the background that also comes in and out more or less at random.

At least the music's pretty good. I liked the girl band, and I also liked the general uplifting sports movie score that "No Breathing" likes to do at certain apropos moments. But none of this can detract from a very weak, overextended story with too many characters, too many possibilities, and a deliberate decision to only flesh out the most trite, melodramatic plot points in the potpourri. Still, it is a movie about swimming, and it does have a very good-looking cast, so I'm sure "No Breathing" will appeal to someone out there. Just not me.

Review by William Schwartz

"No Breathing" is directed by Cho Yong-sun and features Lee Jong-suk, Seo In-guk and Kwon Yuri.