Korean Movie Review: 말아톤

Marathon is a 2005 SK Movie based on Bae Hyeong-jin, a runner with Autism.
According to Wikipedia this film popularized the Term for Autism: 자폐증, japyejeung or "self-closed syndrome.".

I got this movie in Seoul for just 1,000₩ (About 1USD/11Pesos), at the moment I didn't know what the movie was about but a friend told me it was good and I'm glad I got it because it is indeed a good movie (Made me cry a little) 

The Movie is about a young man (Cho-Won) who finds running very liberating. Cho-Won is very into Zebras an Chocopie (Korean Snack) and at the beggining of the movie you can see him at his house eating lots of Chocopies. 
His mother never gave up on him and was determined to prove to the world that her child can be normal, as Cho-Won grows older he and his mom find a former Marathon Champion who is now an old man with Alcohol problems, he is doing community service by Teaching Physics at a school, when Cho-Wons met him they ask him to Traing Cho-Won and he accept, at the begging he just takes advantaje from Cho-Wons by sleeping while Cho-Wons run non stop under the sun, eats Cho-Wons snacks or just by taking him to a Steam House to relax, when the Training starts seeing Cho-Won's determination is when the real training begins. Cho-Won gets a 3rd place in a 10K marathon and his mom starts setting bigger goals for him.

There's a part on the movie where his mom tells Cho-Won he has Million Dollar Legs and apparently
Bae Hyeong-jin (22), autistic person of the film, has his legs insured for $1 million (or one billion won).

SK Telecom, which had a commercial contract with Bae, gave Bae accident insurance certificates of $1 million for his legs and general accident insurance for him on June 7. If Bae injures his legs, he will collect the
insurance money, which may be $1 million maximum. (This touching scene of the film actually happened in reality.)

“Chowon’s legs are?” (Mother)
“Million dollar leg!” (Cho-Won)

All in all, its a good movie, with enough Drama and some comedy ^^



Runtime: 117 min
Language: Korean (available with English subtitles)

-Gisela V.