Seoul 1988

AKA This gives me a chance to discuss the 2020 (i.e. 2021) Olympics

Unlike the last time I tried one of these, this was watched from beginning to end. It is not revolutionary like Tokyo Olympiad or even very good like The Grand Olympics-covering the 1960 Rome games-but it was fine overall, presenting the events as you'd expect them to-plenty of time was spent on the opening and closing ceremonies that were apparently were the start of those being way OOT in being extravagant and artistic. That was covered more extensively in one of the TWO other films covering these games.

At least many of the important highlights were shown, such as the success of Carl Lewis (also, Ben Johnson losing his gold medal because he failed his piss test due to being roided up... of course there's plenty of controversy that still exists today; among other things, most of the people in that 100 meters race were probably doping themselves) and others that won plenty of gold medals. It was definitely weird to me that a great moment of sportsmanship was not shown or even referenced in the English narration-are there other versions narrated in other languages?-that was dry and clinical when it was not portentous: Lawrence Lemieux of Canada was a sailor who during the competition stopped and rescue two Singapore sailors injured in a wreck of their dinghy. As a few minutes of narration were spent on noting how “winning was not the most important thing, but rather competing” I have no explanation why this heroic act by Lemieux was completely ignored in Seoul 1988.

Otherwise, I can't complain about getting to see various events from the past and some athletes I recall from when I was a kid: Sergey Bubka, Aleksandr Karelin and the like. Plus, there's plenty of 80's hair (including MULLETS) to admire, along with some fashion and part of the soundtrack was synth-heavy; to me one song sounded like the opening to Bowie's Cat People tune from the film of the same name... of course I would be remiss in not mentioning Hand in Hand, the official song of these games sung by the band Koreana (the K-pop of the 80's, I suppose) and “hell yeah” to that tune's writers Giorgio Moroder & Tom Whitlock. After all, they were the gentlemen who also penned such 80's soundtrack classics as Danger Zone, Take My Breath Away, and Winner Takes It All. Speaking of K-pop, it does stagger me that in '88, South Korea had just ended authoritarian rule that had existed practically every year since '48 and even in the early 2000's their vehicles were cheap piles of crap. Now, Hyundai and Kia make worthwhile automobiles, many of us have loved their cinema for the past 20 years and BTS currently rules the world.

All that said, this was a fine Olympic film. As for the Olympics currently taking place as I post this review... even if it's unfortunate there are no crowds present, it still has entertained me. Of course it's fun to watch the “popular” events like swimming or track and field; honestly, though, it's even more fun to check out events that are hard for a Dumb American like me to see. As somehow I have almost 1,500 (!!) followers from across the world, it needs to be clarified that outside of the Olympics I can't just turn on the television and regularly see water polo, badminton, archery, table tennis, or taekwondo so that is nice as a change of pace.