Take Off (2009 film)

Take Off (Korean: 국가대표; lit. National Representative) is a 2009 South Korean sports drama film written and directed by Kim Yong-hwa.^[2] It follows a group of misfit athletes who form Korea’s first national ski jumping team to compete in the 1998 Winter Olympics.^[3] The film was the 2nd most attended film of the year in South Korea with 8,392,953 admissions.^[4] Critics noted its blend of sports drama, comedy, and themes of national belonging, particularly in its portrayal of the protagonist, an adoptee navigating identity and family.^[5] Scholars and journalists have noted similarities between the characters and the real first Korean ski jumpers for the national team, whose stories were not widely known until after the film’s success.^[6][7]

Although Take Off is not a direct biographical film, it draws inspiration from real events surrounding South Korea’s first national ski jumping team.^[7] Historically, the team consisted of only five athletes, and because ski jumping was unfamiliar in Korea at the time, the team remained largely unknown to the public.^[8] As noted in news articles, the film reflects the team’s limited funding, training, challenges and lack of recognition.^[7][9] Reports from The Korea Times specifically highlight that the athletes trained in inadequate facilities and faced significant financial constraints.^[10] These documented conditions are reflected in the film’s portrayal of the team’s struggles.^[10] Despite these obstacles, the real team did manage to compete in the Olympics.^[8]

The film’s adoptee protagonist is also grounded in real-world experiences of transnational Korean adoptees.^[5] Rather than being modeled on a single individual, the character reflects themes documented in accounts of adoptee athletes whose stories received significant media attention.^[5] One widely recognized example is Olympic freestyle skier Toby Dawson, whose reunion with his birth family and subsequent public role in Korea were frequently cited in discussions of adoptee identity, return migration, and national representation.^[5] These publicly visible narratives provide contextual parallels for the film’s portrayal of an adoptee navigating questions of belonging and national affiliation.^[5]

Interviews conducted during the 2011 FIS Ski Jumping Continental Cup suggest that several athletes from South Korea’s early national ski jumping team served as informal reference points for the film’s characters.^[11] The Korea Times documented the training environments, personal backgrounds, and performance characters of Choi Heung-chul, Kim Hyun-ki, Choi Yong-jik, and Kang Chil-ku, who were among the small group of national team members active during the period the film dramatizes.^[12] These reports describe limited training facilities, individualized practice styles, and the team's efforts to improve under resource constraints, which are elements that correspond to conditions depicted in the film’s narrative.^[10][11]

Cha Heon-tae, a Korean-American whose English name is Bob, was adopted with his sister to American parents. He appears on a Korean television program in search of his mother. Since Heon-tae is a trained alpine skier, he is approached by Coach Bang who wants to recruit members for a new national ski jumping team for the approaching 1998 Winter Olympics. The other members are Choi Hong-cheol, a night club waiter who quit being an athlete for drugs; Ma Jae-bok, who works at a meat restaurant and has a strict father; and Kang Chil-gu, who lives with his grandmother and autistic brother Bong-gu. Bob initially refuses to lead the team but after meeting Bang su-yeon, the mysterious scam artist who is the daughter of Coach Bang, and seeing his mother who still suffers from insults from a rich family, decides to prove himself to his mother through the team project. All eventually become good skiers, but are out of practice. To gear up for the qualifying match at the World Cup, they overcome their fear and train in unusual places, such as from the top of cars, amusement park roller coasters, etc. After almost getting disqualified because of a fight the night before, they succeed in qualifying at the World Cup. But the victory is bittersweet once they hear the IOC opted for Salt Lake City over Korea's Muju County. Unfortunately, because of deep fog, Chil-gu injures his leg and becomes unable to compete. Bong-gu decides to jump as a substitute but does not make the required distance for a gold medal and nearly loses his life. Despite their loss, the athletes rejoice because Bong-gu survived the jump, and the Koreans back home are proud of them.

Scholars have described Take Off as exploring themes of nationalism, diaspora, and the pressures placed on athletes to embody national identity.^[5] The adoptee storyline has been analyzed as a critique of how Korean society views “returning” expatriates, highlighting tensions between cultural belonging and exclusion.^[5]

Film critics at The Korea Times noted that the movie emphasizes teamwork, family, and perseverance, blending humor with emotional drama.^[3] Commentators also point out that the film unintentionally increased public awareness of ski jumping as a sport, shaping cultural perceptions of winter athletics in Korea.^[6][7]

Take Off helped define the modern Korean sports-movie genre, contributing to its popularity and demonstrating how national narratives are embedded within athletic storytelling.^[5][13]

Director Kim Yong-hwa conducted research on Korean ski jumpers by examining news coverage and interviewing the real life ski jumpers, allowing him to incorporate real training conditions and team dynamics into the film.^[3][14] Kim introduced the background on the ski jumpers and the environment in which they practiced.^[10] Reports from The Korea Times describe how Korean ski jumpers trained with limited facilities, often waxing their own skis, practicing on low-level hills to correct technique, and improvising training environments when proper venues were unavailable.^[10] These were conditions Kim used when designing the film’s training sequences.^[10] For the actors, preparation involved learning the basic motions and body positions used in ski jumping, such as the in-run posture, take-off stance, and landing form.^[10] While the actors didn’t perform full competitive jumps, they trained to reproduce these movements for both close-up scenes and simulated jumps.^[10] The production also incorporated locations modeled after actual Korean ski jumping sites, including sites later used for international events to help replicate the environment in which the real Korean ski jumpers practiced.^[10][11]

Upon release, Take Off received coverage from many Korean newspapers that noted its approach to representing the development of a national ski jumping team.^[9] The Korea Times highlighted the film’s depiction of ski jumping, the ensemble portrayal of the athletes, and the integration of an adoptee storyline within the broader narrative.^[13] The review described how the film presented the team’s formation, their training in improvised facilities, and their participation in international competition.^[13] These assessments indicate that the film was recognized for its detailed portrayal of a little known sport and its incorporation of themes related to national identity and athletic development.^[15] Critics also highlighted its mix of humor and drama.^[13]

The film had a measurable cultural impact, increasing public interest in South Korea’s real ski jumping team.^[6][9] Ski jumpers reported that more people recognized the sport after the film’s release, and companies began showing interest in sponsoring the team.^[9]

The film also helped bring national attention to Korean ski jumpers’ earlier achievements, such as participation in the 2002 and 2010 Winter Olympics.^[7][12]

The sequel Take Off 2 is directed by Kim Jong-hyun, and its predominantly female cast is led by Soo Ae, playing a North Korean defector who becomes a national ice hockey player.^[21] Also starring Kim Seul-gi, Jin Ji-hee and Oh Dal-su, the film began shooting in October 2015.^[22]

• Official website (in Korean)
• Take Off at the Korean Movie Database (in Korean)
• Take Off at IMDb
• Take Off at Box Office Mojo
• Take Off at HanCinema
• Take Off at Rotten Tomatoes