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| A scene from Korean boxing comedy film "Count" is seen in this photo provided by its distributor CJ ENM. Yonhap |
In the Olympics, gold medals are made out of athletes' sweat, blood and tears as well as efforts in the gym every day, making their sacrifices worthy of respect.
But for Park Si-hun, the gold medal from a historic boxing match with American fighter Roy Jones at the 1988 Seoul Olympics by a 3-2 decision put him in the epicenter of a widespread controversy and accusations of corruption.
The middleweight champion quietly retired from boxing and worked as a physical education teacher in his rural hometown for the next 13 years before making a return to competitive boxing as a coach.
The upcoming Korean comedy film "Count" gives a personal perspective of Park's real-life story after retirement to look back on his controversial win, presenting a hilarious underdog sports story with high school students with a rebellious spirit.
The film provides a familiar and emotionally resonant story for audiences to follow while highlighting the sport of boxing itself.
Set in 1998 in the southeastern port city of Jinhae, Park (played by Jin Seon-kyu) appears as a high school teacher nicknamed "crazy dog" due to his stubborn, eccentric discipline style.
Despite his successful professional career, Park still seems to lick his wounds from the past.
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| The poster of boxing comedy film "Count" is seen in this photo provided by its distributor CJ ENM. Yonhap |
At home, he deals with a son who wants to see his gold medal and is pressured by his wife to move to a new house with his pension payments from the medal.
Feeling lost in life, Park stumbles across a high school boxing contest in which Yun-woo (Seong Yoo-bin) loses a game due to match fixing. Yun-woo quits boxing and transfers to Park's school.
Park creates a boxing team to persuade Yun-woo to return to the ring and begins training the young talent and other underdog students in his own way.
The film offers a good laugh with slapstick comedy and funny characters, but it also uncovers the seedy and corrupt side of the boxing world and fighters navigating it to succeed.
The story heads to the familiar formula with a bunch of boxing film cliches: an inspirational coach trains an underdog hero despite setbacks on the way to victory.
It is also a heartwarming family story in which the coach tries to prove himself to his family and uses boxing as a way to do so.
Jin, who played impressive characters in hit action comedy movies "The Outlaws" (2017) and "Extreme Job" (2019), fully embodies the champion-turned-teacher role that partially resembles his own personal background. The Jinhae native had dreamed of being a physical education teacher and does boxing as a hobby.
It also resembles the life of the 46-year-old who landed on a lead role in a movie for the first time in 19 years of his acting career, which made him shed tears during a press conference after the film's screening.
"Count" will hit local theaters on Feb. 22. (Yonhap)
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