This is a strange movie.
The premise of a professional player helping a homeless-team in their upcoming Soccer World Cup could be an interesting one. Simple and grounded enough where character interactions and developments could make for a memorable story.. this isn't the case here. It all feels like excerpts of a "TV drama" instead, with scenes that come out of nowhere, are rushed, or undercooked. Everything with the lead's mother just goes too fast and I didn't care for! Then the cast of characters is presented and barely explored, which is fine.. but for their interactions to not develop into anything memorable or worth caring for either is a problem. The lessons learned, the arcs and emotional weight are just there to tick boxes. It all reminded me of the much better "Shaolin Soccer" film, with a similar team and problems. But that one feels better paced and is capable of cramming more story in its length to make it juicy.
Anyway, I quite liked the locations and most camerawork! But the small parts feel really small, even more so when compared to the "bigger" ones.
I can't really recommend this, as it is a product that feels like a lot of parts that don't add to something greater.
Personally, came to my attention because my country was shown (in trailers) to take part in the tournament (which is unusual to see), and was curious as to its inclusion. I'm also familiar with Park Seo-joon.. not because anything I saw in the trailers was enticing.
