Dream (2023)

Records Or Memories?

I know I sound like a broken record, but the Koreans are the masters of entertainment! And only the Koreans are masters of combining comedy with drama with a thoughtful message, which in my opinion, represents the next step of evolution in the entertainment industry. We all want to be entertained, but to use the medium of movies and TV shows to convey a message is to really use this medium to inspire and provide awareness.

This movie is a true delight, and you are likely to find yourselves with some absolute laugh-out-loud moments as well as moments that just might tug at your heartstrings.

Yoon Hong Dae is a professional soccer player who ends up in trouble and is placed on probation. His agent—in order to try and restore Dae’s questionable reputation—puts him in charge of organizing and coaching a team—a team of homeless men to compete in the World Cup for Homeless players in Budapest.

Of course, we get a collection of homeless men of varying ages and backgrounds with different sets of skills. Seeing these guys attempting to play soccer is absolutely hilarious! One cheers when he kicks the ball and his shoe flies over the goal! And yet, each player has something to play for. They aren’t proud of being homeless, but this game just might restore the confidence to make some life changes as well as help people become aware that homelessness is a problem that has to be addressed. There are enough resources on this planet to ensure that every single human being has food, water, clothes, and shelter. So, why is it so hard?

Lee So Min is in charge of the documentary she is making to help showcase the team. Of course, she and Hong Dae don’t exactly see eye-to-eye, and their spats and bickering will make you giggle.

At first, Hong Dae is less than thrilled to be coaching a team of homeless men, most of whom have little-to-no skills. He figures he’s wasting his time, but the more he gets to know them, the more he finds a connection between each of them. Perhaps that is a part of the process: not to see a homeless person as a homeless person but as a person. It’s difficult to ignore someone when you’ve developed a connection. It’s even more inspiring when the entire team comes together to try and get Hong Dae out of trouble when he’s wrongfully charged with assault against four teen boys who harassed a woman with a mental disability.

The movie isn’t about winning. It’s about awareness as well as simply doing your best no matter how badly the odds are stacked against you. This is an especially powerful point when dealing with homeless people who may easily feel, “What’s the point? Nothing changes.” But Hong Dae asks them a poignant question, “Are you here for records or for memories?”

One thing I will say is that this movie is certainly memorable, important, and a sheer delight to watch. It reminded me of a combination of the “The Mighty Ducks” and “The Bad News Bears.” “Dream” certainly more than belongs in that kind of company!

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IU and Seo Joon bickering was the highlight of this movie.

Outstanding performance, I got so immersed I forgot they're actors and actresses.
The messages are nice, the backstories are detailed well, the comedy is great, and the ending is realistic and fulfilling.

There are two issues though.
Firstly, the foreign teams didn't look like homeless people at all.
And secondly, everyone played way too aggressively without any fouls or penalties, I guess they're going for amateurish rules like children, but then their opponents look like professional players.. The scenes give conflicting feelings.
On one hand they push and shove like children, and on the other, the opponents look like pro league players.

I can't say that I was disappointed since I'm here for the main cast, and the main cast DELIVERED.
I'm just sad that the screenwriter decided to go with these kind of football scenes. The movie would've been better if they didn't show the worldcup matches at all, and just did a time skip with the results of the matches, and more time to tie the ends with each plot.

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A real feelgood movie!

This movie is almost perfect. My only problem is that the score and music is not the best, and the World Cup scenes with the cheering and commentating was cringe as hell most of the time. Too over the top. The cast was great, especially the two lead. The other members in the team had a good backstory too. This was a feelgood, heartwarming movie and funny too. Also, even though it would've been nice to see a happy ending for everyone, I liked it that not everyone had it. My other problem is that we didn't get any confirmation about In Sun's girlfriend, or maybe I just missed it. That Japanese girl was her because we never saw her again.

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a fun time!!!

Definitely a perfect movie to have a fun time with family or friends as it contains plently of wholesome scenes between characters that will surely touch your heart. Nothing too extraordinary but just good enough to make two hours of your life spent well.

As for criticisms, the run-time of the film dragged the quality for a little bit. Some of the scenes could have been cut or shortened to create a more concise storytelling. IU's character not being explored further is a mistake as the character shows interesting premise that could have been fleshed out and make her character fully-developed

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União, respéito e diferenças.

Gostei muito só filme, me emocionei com as histórias e achei tão importante, tratam de forma leve e divertida e trouxeram o futebol que é um esporte de união pra representar a história da população carente (como no final do filme fala que é o termo correto)
A escalação de atores é maravilhosa, amei ver a IU atuando com o Seo Joon, além de outros atores que eu já conheço, o final me lembrou prison playbook, mas nesse tava todo mundo torcendo pelo Hong dae e fiquei toda emocionada, não só no final mas em várias partes do filme, só senti falta de explicar sobre a menina que o In sun tava procurando, porque ela tava na seleção do Japão? E ela nem deu explicação pra ele sobre o que aconteceu nem nada, mas pra mim o que importa é que ele ficou bem. Nem ganhar e nem perder pra eles o importante foi a persistência e determinação, foi o foco naquele objetivo que eles tinham dentro do coração deles

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La última película coreana que he visto y he de decir que ha sido todo un descubrimiento, porque la verdad es que no esperaba que me gustara tanto. El principal motivo por el que decidí verla fue por el casting con Park Seo Joon y IU, sin embargo, no me arrepiento de verla y me alegro de haberlo hecho.
A pesar de que es una película un poco larga, ya que dura unas 2 horas y pico, se te hace muy llevadera y rápida debido principalmente a su tono cómico ya que desde el primer momento estás riendo y no paras hasta el final.
Sin embargo, me gustaría destacar principalmente que, a parte de ser una película de comedia, también es una película de crecimiento personal y grupal y una película de historia de vida. Este crecimiento no es únicamente por los jugadores del equipo de fútbol, que son sin techos, sino también un crecimiento para el entrenador y para la directora de documental. Por lo que es una película que lo tiene todo.
También decir que es una recreación, en tono cómico, del mundial de fútbol del 2002, el momento más grandioso para el fútbol surcoreano en su historia como país.
Si estabas pensando en verla o no, o la acabas de descubrir, te animo fuertemente a verla, no te arrepentirás.

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I've never seen soccer like it.

Park Seo Joon and IU - their dynamic was fun to watch. He's got a giant chip on his shoulder, and she's got a lot of heart. For the most part, they were like oil and water and that was funny. Thank you, writers, for not trying to bring a romance into this! I felt that the whole cast did a really good job. The rag tag group of soccer players, each with their own heartbreaking story, were brought together for the goal of playing soccer, and in the process, they changed themselves, they changed each other, and they definitely changed the coach.

My problem was with the soccer matches themselves. First, the field in Budapest was tiny, like a kid's soccer field. That necessitated a lot of close shots by the cameras, which I think was supposed to get us to feel like we were in the matches. But the rules of soccer apparently did not apply at all. There was pushing, there was shoving, there was holding onto players, and there were no consequences for any of this. That, do me, diminished the realism of the games.

It was an okay watch for me.

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Because PSJ

I had pretty high expectations of this movie and figured that it would be a feel good sort of movie. Some parts of the movie shone and were excellent while other parts were, to be honest, a little "meh". I wanted to give it a 7.5/10 but because of the ML, I bumped it to 8/10. I am not his fan but I recognise that he is a fine actor and in this movie, he did a fine job (yet again).

Why did ML mark his own team in the start of the movie? (If someone can help me out here, it'll be great, thanks.)

ML was portrayed as a fairly prickly character with a fairly good heart. He was a great soccer player and he needed his time to shine just like the homeless soccer players. He needed to see his worth and his potential. The movie showed that everyone faced different challenges and everyone struggled to make his/ her life count. It showed that having good spirit and having others support and validate one are pretty vital in driving one "up and on". The highlight and touching moments were towards the end when the goalie kept catching the soccer ball with his whole body as though his entire life depended on it. I was moved to tears. When ML ran alongside his player to get him to kick the winning shot, I was moved too.

Overall, this movie is an okay watch. I expected more. Perhaps I expected it to be more excited and more thrilling. But, it was okay.

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Feel good, heartwarmingly good

Is this a sports movie? Kind of. But honestly, this is more of a heartwarmingly beautiful story. I would have watched this even if it was a 16 episode show- and it honestly could have been.

Park Seo Joonhas to be my favourite part of this movie. He does amazingly well in such roles, I think this is one of my favourite performances in a kdrama. The vibe reminds me much of fight for my way, which also was amazing.

Indeed IU is wonderfully good in this too, and I loved her banter with Park seo joon.

I honestly was left wanting for more and will probably watch more sports dramas.

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A bunch of misfits trying their best at football: enjoyable for its last third but forgettable

This sport movie takes an interesting angle tackling on a quite unknown (at least to me) event "The Homeless International World Cup", which is apparently an annual international football event. Even though I found the premise of the film quite engaging, it certainly did not gain me immediately over. Indeed, the tone of the story was almost too comedic / satirical at first making it difficult for me to get emotionally invested in the characters. However, the last third of the movie makes it up and is pretty great with a couple of tear inducing moments.

The cast (and more specifically the two main roles played by Park Seo Joon and IU) was what drove me to watch this. I am clearly satisfied by their performances but it is is for sure not their best and most memorable work. Especially for IU, her role was too subdue to really offer her a lot opportunities to shine. Park Seo Joon has a little more room to play as his character is much more dominant to the storyline. Overall the ensemble cast did a commendable job bringing the story to life despite the writing flaws.

The filmmaking was very good: all the football sequences were rather compelling to follow as well as the more slice-of-life moments. I enjoyed the bright and colourful atmosphere as well as the soundtrack, not unforgettable but pleasant while watching the film.

I would recommend this movie to people that are looking for a different kind of sport movie. If you are fan of one of the actors / actresses, it is worth giving it a shot. Rather than really being about football, it is much more slice-of-life with a lot of misfits characters trying their best all together.

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