Marathon...

I watched another good Korean movie on my flight to the UK :> The movie entitled 'Marathon' illustrated the story of Cho-won, a teenager with autism, and his passion for running. He initially got into running because his mother chose the activity for him, but he develops a love for the sport even though he never expressed it in words or action. The plot revolves around him training for his first marathon, amidst struggles between his reluctant marathon coach and his mother, trying to understand what Cho-won wants.

In the film, Cho-won emerged from being a boy with a disability working in a sheltered workshop, to a someone who knows what he wants in life and has the strength to compete on par with people who are supposedly more advantaged. He is not the only character who grew in spirit in the story. Cho-won's reluctant coach had no understanding of autism at first. He grew to see beyond Cho-won's condition and began to treat him as a promising athlete and a good student he is. Cho-won's mother started off as a guilt-ridden and controlling mother, trying to find her son a niche in life and to make the best choices for him. Cho-won's mother was 100% behind her son running the marathon, but started to go against him running when she lost faith in her belief that Cho-won likes running. She did not want Cho-won to risk his life running the marathon just because she wanted him to. Cho-won finally shows that he really loves running, by competing in the marathon against her wishes. From that, she discovers that her son has grown up and is capable of making choices for himself. Subsequently, she was able to let her son be, and assumes a supportive role.

A sub-plot in the story was the effect of Cho-won's autism on his family. Cho-won was a difficult child from young. His parents lack of understanding of the disorder led to a lot of tension within the family. His father left the family. Cho-won's mother had custody of Cho-won and his brother Jung-won. She however concentrated all her efforts on Cho-won, and seemed to have neglected Jung-won's needs. Jung-won grew up feeling resentful about Cho-won. Even so, in moments of crisis, when their mother was hospitalized and Cho-won runs away to participate in the marathon, Jung-won was able to put his bitterness behind him and helped his mother find Cho-won.

I really felt that the movie depicted autism in a very real way. It demonstrated the difficulties in communicating and interacting with people, the poor understanding of emotions, and restricted interests. What it did very well was also to show that people with autism are also not much different from supposedly 'normal' people.

Cho-won often seldom tell other people how he feels, especially whether he feels tired or in pain. When asked questions, he often repeats them and it takes some effort to get him to answer your question but that still leaves you thinking whether you lead him to that answer in the first place. He takes things literally, running 100 laps around the field when his coach just said it jokingly. He is over-formal with his brother as he bows to his brother when ever he sees him. When asked how does he feel (happy, sad, angry, frightened) in different situations (including one of his mother being in hospital), he could not answer. Cho-won however did feel really distraught when his mother was hospitalized. He could not put a name to it, but he was definitely feeling a negative emotion.

Another thing I thought was wrapped up really well in the movie was Cho-won's love for running being shown as very exhilarating sensory experience for him. The air brushing against his cheek as he sprints; his hand running through the long grass on the side of the track; his heart pumping to push blood around his body. It made him feel alive. :)

That is what we all are and that's what we all want... to feel alive. We may have different personalities, different beliefs, different abilities, different limitations. But our aspirations always lead to one things, the feeling of being alive :)