Champion (2002 film)

Champion
Hangul
챔피언
RRChaempieon
MRCh'aemp'iŏn
Directed byKwak Kyung-taek
Written byKwak Kyung-taek
Produced byJo Weon-jang
StarringYu Oh-seong
Chae Min-seo
CinematographyHong Kyung-pyo
Edited byPark Gok-ji
Music byLaurent Sauvagnac - Stéphane Zidi - Matthieu Gain
Distributed byMedia Suits
Release date
  • June 28, 2002 (2002-06-28)
Running time
117 minutes
CountrySouth Korea
LanguageKorean
Box officeUS$10.6 million[1]

Champion (Korean챔피언) is a 2002 South Korean biographical sport drama film directed by Kwak Kyung-taek, about South Korean boxer Duk Koo Kim, portrayed by Yu Oh-seong.

Background

A biopic, Champion details the life of Duk Koo Kim, South Korea's most popular boxer, who, in his rise to international fame, faced the reigning lightweight champion Ray Mancini at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 13, 1982. Kim ultimately lost the match after fourteen rounds, and within minutes, dropped into a coma from which he never recovered. The match changed boxing rules around the world; and affected South Korea especially.

Cast

Reception

In 2012, Christopher Tavlarides, who was the co-executive producer of The Good Son, a documentary film based on the Mark Kriegel biography The Good Son: The Life of Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, noted Champion was fictionalized and made without consultation of Lee Young-mee or Ray Mancini. (Kim's son Chi-wan, born six months after the boxer's death, was still a minor at the time of Champion being produced, and participated in The Good Son where he told Kriegel he wanted to visit Mancini.)[2]

References

  1. ^ "Champion" Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Boxofficemojo. Retrieved March 04, 2012.
  2. ^ "(Yonhap Feature) New documentary about Kim Duk-koo set for release 30 years after his death". Yonhap News Agency. August 17, 2012. Retrieved September 24, 2016.