Lifting King Kong (aka The Bronze Medalist, New York Premiere)
Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 7:00 PM
Tribeca Cinemas
(54 Varick Street, NYC)
Gun Yong Park, Sports, 2009, 120 min.
If second place is first place for losers, then let’s not even get into what third place means. Popular actor Lee Bum-Soo plays real-life Olympic weightlifter, Ji-Bong, who quits the sport after a gruesome powerlifting injury. The only job he can find is coaching weightlifting at a small town school. Even worse, it’s a girl’s school and if there’s one group of people on this earth who do not want to bulk up and gain muscle mass, I would guess it’s Korean high school girls. Complications ensue. Downbeat and gritty to the point of being almost nasty, LIFTING KING KONG displays people in all their awful greediness, but this commitment to not flinching from the bad side of life makes the inevitable comeback and triumph of the human spirit feel that much more touching, and that much more earned.
Tribeca Cinemas (54 Varick Street, NYC)
1, A, C, E trains to Canal St.
First Come First Serve Basis