Korean Movie Review - Barefoot Kibong (맨발의 기봉이)

Two thoughts repeated in my mind when I watched the Korean film 'Barefoot Kibong':

'Run Korean Forest Run!'or 'Never Go Full Retard!' Kibong,  the title character in 'Barefoot Kibong'(맨발의 기봉이), played by Shin Hyeon-joon (신현준) is a mentally handicapped guy who lives in a small seaside village in rural Korea.  He lives with his mother and enjoys running back and forth around the town doing odd jobs to earn money for his elderly mother.

Eventually people recognize his talent for running and the town mayor get the idea to have him train for a half-marathon to be held in the big city (Seoul).  There's some question whether this is exploitative or not, but eventually the Mayor and the rest of the town realize that Forrest needs to run!

I'm guessing Shin took this acting job as a challenge to prove he could do more than comedy or action movies,  but following the advice of Robert Downey Jr in 'Tropic Thunder', I'm not sure if going 'Full Retard' is a good idea.... I don't think being able to run a half-marathon is not enough of a super skill to counteract that. :-P

Anyway, it pulls all the heart strings enough, the performance by Shin and the other actors are good enough to make it convincing and its hard to root against a feel good, underdog story.  5/10.

I thought the mayor, played by Im Ha-ryong (임하룡) had the best performance in the movie.