The LKFF Teasers this year are showing the wide range of film genres in contemporary Korean cinema. This month, a comedy.
Queen of Walking (걷기왕)
Director: Baek Seung-Hwa
Cast: Shim Eun-Kyung, Park Joo-Hee
2016, 93 mins
7pm, Monday 22 May, Regent Street Cinema | Book here
Hailed as one of the funniest Korean comedies of the year, Queen of Walking sees motion-sickness afflicted student Man-bok (Shim Eun-kyung, Miss Granny) join her school’s ‘race walking’ team, developing a passion for the sport and a zest for life. With the aid of a passionate homeroom teacher, the national competition is soon on the horizon, but how will bus-averse Man-bok make the 70km journey to the race…?
(automatically generated) Read LKL’s review of this event here.
It was a harmless way to spend an hour and a half, and quite funny in parts. The most interesting thing about the film was the trick it played on you: it set itself up to be a feelgood sporting movie, but then decided to stick to being a mild comedy about friendship and the uncertainties and pressures of growing up. I loved the idea of the student whose burning ambition in life was to be … a government employee. As this Yonhap review says, the film’s message is: “It’s OK to be you.”
3/5