Once I first watched The Queen’s Gambit, I had a rudimentary understanding of chess, however that didn’t cease me from diving head-first down the rabbit gap of the world and its characters. I watched A Lovely Thoughts by no means having taken a calculus class, and Interstellar with little extra information in regards to the cosmos than tips on how to establish Orion’s Belt.
I lead with this preface, as a result of the vast majority of American viewers have most likely by no means heard of the sport Go which serves because the premise of Netflix’s latest movie, The Match. Courting again to 548 BC China, the 2 participant board sport is taken into account the oldest repeatedly performed to the current day. The black and white stones and gridded board will draw visible comparisons to chess and checkers, however I’m not right here to elucidate how the sport is performed, as a result of I nonetheless don’t know.
I’ve an curiosity in studying after watching the movie, however my key takeaway is that as with most cerebral storylines, you don’t want a private working information to benefit from the experience. Based mostly on the true story of Korean Go legends Cho Hun-hyun and his scholar Lee Chang-ho, the movie follows the evolution of their relationship from an apprenticeship to a rivalry.
We’re launched to Cho Hun-hyun, performed by Squid Recreation‘s “The Entrance Man” Lee Byung-hun, as he turns into a global success successful the Ying Shibei World Go Championship in Singapore. Dealing with off in opposition to Chinese language competitor Nie Weiping, who’s sporting outsized glasses and respiration out of an oxygen masks, Cho Hun-hyun grabs a cigarette from his sport coat pocket and lights it, whereas three extra packs sit subsequent to him on the desk, and growth, similar to that, we’re smack dab within the 80s.
Following this worldwide success, Cho Hun-hyun is in excessive demand, warding off bribes from rich would-be patrons in search of him to tutor their grandchildren within the sport. It’s not till Hun-hyun encounters Lee Chang-ho, the relative of one other skilled participant, that he finds somebody value his time and funding in teaching.
The 2 males enter into a proper apprenticeship, with Chang-ho shifting in with Hun-hyun, his spouse, and youngsters to dedicate his life to turning into an expert Go participant. As with The Queen’s Gambit we see the obsessive and aggressive nature this vocation brings out in each males, and the conflict of Hun-hyun’s custom with Chang-ho’s new and progressive methods of pondering. There are additionally moments of “do as I say, not as I do” lecturing, the place Hun-hyun’s behavior of taunting his opponents is introduced into query by Chang-ho.
The story reaches a climax when Chang-ho turns into Hun-hyun’s opponent a lot quicker than anticipated, and he takes the titles his instructor has lengthy defended. This fall from grace evokes Hun-hyun to rededicate himself to the sport and turn into a worthy opponent as soon as extra for his protégée. It’s a deep investigation of sportsmanship and self-improvement, with each males studying that competing with themselves is the best problem and calling of all.
