Director Park Beom-su’s latest film, Victory, follows a group of high school girls who find friendship and happiness in an unexpected place. Best friends Pil-sun (Lee Hye-ri) and Mi-na (Park Se-wan) decide to form a cheer club just to use a club room at school with the new transfer student, Se-hyun (Jo A-ram). Together they fall in love with the sport of cheerleading and learn what it means to be part of a team.
The film takes place in 1999, in the countryside town of Geoje. With big dreams of making it in Seoul one day as backup dancers, Pil-sun and Mi-na spend all their time dancing in the school bathrooms instead of focusing on school, which leads them to being held back a year. While they are now the respected “unnies” (older sisters) of their grade, the duo deviously formulate a plan to create a fake club to swindle the school into giving them a practice room. This is where new transfer student Se-hyun comes into play, as her background in cheerleading leads the two girls to proposition her into forming a cheer club.
Not all goes to plan, however, when they’re tasked with increasing the soccer team’s athleticism by 50%. Instead of being able to play around and dance in their practice room, the girls must form an actual team to help cheer the soccer team to victory. While doing so, the group of girls ends up growing into better versions of themselves through friendship and teamwork. The girls earn their own small victories as they learn what it takes to run a cheer club, but not without learning some tough lessons.
Despite taking place in the nineties, Pil-sun’s story is relatable in more ways than one. Pil-sun dreams big, hoping to escape the little town of Geoje and make it to Seoul one day. She lives in a small apartment with just her father, a hardworking construction supervisor who is unfortunately always at the mercy of his management. All she wants to do is dance, eat, and be with her friends, as she knows schoolwork isn’t her strong suit. She argues with her dad over small things, she’ll fight people to defend her friends, and she’s stubborn. All these qualities, both good and bad, make Pil-sun a wonderfully written protagonist, as audiences will find themselves rooting for her and seeing themselves in her. She isn’t perfect by any means, and that only serves to make her even more relatable. It’s heartwarming to see how she grows throughout the film and learns to think with a team mentality instead of being individualistic.
The adults in the film have their own growing moments as well. Pil-sun’s father (Hyun Bong-sik) faces his own struggle at work, as he’s caught between his own morals and expectations at work. Inspired by his own daughter, Pil-sun’s father eventually realizes what’s most important, and stands up for himself, his friends, and his beliefs. Not only do audiences get to see the emotions and conflicts of the youth, they also get to see the emotions and conflicts one faces in adulthood.
Lee Hye-ri and Park Se-wan really bring Pil-sun and Mina’s youthful and fun-loving personalities to life. Both actresses have incredible chemistry, leaning hard into the silly antics when their characters make mistakes or stumble and fall. Not just the two of them, but the entire cast meshed so well with their characters, partially because they don’t seem to be acting. Just as people often say with Marvel’s casting choices for iconic characters such as Iron Man or Deadpool, these actors and actresses are their characters. They’ve fully adopted their personas, and their onscreen interactions with one another truly feel like family and friends.
For those looking for a light-hearted film that will have you smiling all the way through, this new movie is a a great choice. Victory will premiere in the U.S. on August 16.
