[HanCinema's Film Review] "Victory"

In 1999, Pil-seon (played by Lee Hyeri) and Mi-na (played by Park Se-wan) are two borderline delinquent high school girls on Geoje Island who really, really love dancing, particularly hip hop, and are quite talented at it. They sense an opportunity when Se-hyeon (played by Jo Aram) and her brother Dong-hyeon (played by Lee Chan-hyeong) move to their school from Seoul. In their former lives, Se-hyeon was a cheerleader and Dong-hyeon a soccer player, and it's a bit of a mystery why they've come to Geoje Island given their cosmopolitan background.

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That mystery is...never really solved, is the biggest flaw "Victory" has. The script hints at the social situation at their old school, but never gives any clear answers to what exactly happened, or how and why their parents moved them to this particular location. The principal's obsession with soccer, while it certainly explains why he backs the formation of the dubiously motivated cheer squad, doesn't come close to answering this question.

I wouldn't have been so bothered by this plot point except that "Victory" does go into detail about the other girls' families and their work situations. Most annoyingly, there's an entire subplot about a dispute between the shipbuilding union and the shipbuilding company that's never really resolved, it just provides a couple of scenes of arbitrary drama. Although it also provides a couple of scenes of arbitrary cheer, which almost cancels that out.

"Victory" is principally a girls' movie- in the sense that the story is by far at its most compelling when discussing the relationships of the girls in the squad. The movie's a lot of fun when Pil-seon is wrangling with Se-hyeon over the best way to run it, and we can see all the girls influence each other in small ways throughout such that they become genuine friends. The whole story's quite sweet, and the mostly uncut cheer scenes are a great payoff for all the hard work they do.

"Victory" only earned about half a million admissions at the South Korean box office over the summer. If I had to guess why I'd say that it's because the movie isn't really a comedy despite being marketed as one. The long runtime is also a significant flaw. Instead of dealing with the more interesting worldbuilding, "Victory" deals a lot more with comparatively contrived drama, like a mostly pointless love triangle or one of the girls leaving the team.

Actually that plot point happens twice, the first much better than the second, because in the first case the movie is fully aware of the fact that its characters are flawed, bratty girls. Their ultimate success is compelling, not just because it helps the soccer team win, but because we can see how they go from unfocused and naive to genuinely determined. The cheerleading squad helps them act a little less like teenage girls and a little more like young women, who think less in terms about where they are and more in terms about who they are, remaining quirky all the while.

Written by William Schwartz

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"Victory" is directed by Park Beom-soo-I, and features Lee Hyeri, Park Se-wan, Lee Jung-ha, Jo Aram, Hyun Bong-sik, Choi Ji-su. Release date in Korea: 2024/08/14.