Champion (Korean: 챔피언) is a 2002 South Korean biographical sport drama film directed by Kwak Kyung-taek, about South Korean boxer Duk Koo Kim, portrayed by Yu Oh-seong.
Contents
Background
A biopic, Champion details the life of Duk Koo Kim, South Korea's most popular boxer, who, in his rise to international fame, faced the reigning lightweight champion Ray Mancini at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 13, 1982. Kim ultimately lost the match after fourteen rounds, and within minutes, dropped into a coma from which he never recovered. The match changed boxing rules around the world; and affected South Korea especially.
Cast
Yu Oh-seong - Duk Koo Kim
Chae Min-seo - Lee Kyeong-mi
Yun Seung-won - Kim Hyeon-ji
Jung Doo-hong - Lee Sang-bok
Kim Byeong-seo - Park Jong-pal
Ji Dae-han - Hwang Jun-seok
Shin Jung-geun - Kim Yun-gu
Kim Hyun-sook - Bus driver
Han Dae-gwan
Matthew Ray Phillips - Ray Mancini
Hoss Mortezaie - Mancini's Cornerman
Reception
In 2012, Christopher Tavlarides, who was the co-executive producer of The Good Son, a documentary film based on the Mark Kriegel biography The Good Son: The Life of Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, noted Champion was fictionalized and made without consultation of Lee Young-mee or Ray Mancini. (Kim's son Chi-wan, born six months after the boxer's death, was still a minor at the time of Champion being produced, and participated in The Good Son where he told Kriegel he wanted to visit Mancini.)