[Lee Jong-gil's Movie Reading] Is Extending the Challenge in Professional Baseball a Hope?

Movie 'Not Out' Jung Jae-kwang, High School Student Dreaming of Pro Baseball Player
Involved in Crime to Raise Bribe for Director... Wandering Youth
Dim Eyes and Blank Face Contrast... Growth Emphasis Lacking

Gwangho dreams of becoming a professional baseball player. He is confident about being selected in the rookie draft. His skills are not outstanding. He became self-absorbed after hitting a walk-off hit in the high school baseball finals. He doesn’t even glance at offers to become a trainee for a professional team. Contrary to his expectations, scouts do not call his name. Gwangho is anxious and doesn’t know where to go. The university he wants to attend has already reserved a spot for his friend. The coach says he will look into other universities and advises him to strike out during a friendly game at bat. Gwangho swings the bat into the air. However, he is ruled not out and awkwardly settles on first base.

"Are you doing whatever you want?" "Sorry." "What are you trying to do? Do you think this is a game where you’re supposed to lose on purpose?" "I can’t miss on purpose." "Hey, just do one thing. If you want to keep your pride, then keep your pride. Or just listen well."

The movie Not Out exposes the wandering youth and an unfair society through a high school student who is on the brink of being out not only in baseball but also in life. Gwangho resorts to crime to prepare a bribe for the coach. He manufactures illegal gasoline and attempts theft. Actor Jeong Jaegwang focused on portraying desperation. He said he had similar worries that caused him inner pain.

"While preparing to enter the Department of Theater and Film, I heard a lot of negative comments. Even my acting academy teacher didn’t have high expectations. At that time, I felt like Gwangho. I wanted to express it similarly but differently. So I wrote a diary every day. There’s no better way to express lines filled with various emotions."

His dull eyes and blank face are also carefully prepared acting. He practiced often because he thought Gwangho, who commits crimes, might come across as unlikable. The negatives outweigh the positives. The film fails to evoke empathy for those who live with hardship due to their uniqueness. The point that consistently appears, indicating personal growth, is also ambiguous.

In fact, Gwangho doesn’t change much. He only restores his strained relationship with his father. He continues playing baseball at a four-year university, but the door to professional baseball has become narrower. This year, nineteen college graduates were called up in the rookie draft, only about a quarter of the seventy-nine high school graduates. Gwangho also carries guilt over his friend Mincheol, who was injured while helping with theft. The debt his father bears is also a burden.

Thus, his uncertain challenge is extended. The life of an actor is similar. Without work, they are essentially unemployed. Even if they are lucky enough to continue acting, only a very few are guaranteed a comfortable life. Maybe that’s why Jeong Jaegwang said there’s no need to insist on just one thing like Gwangho.

"I don’t want to defend it. There are many things you can do besides baseball. If he had met a good adult, he wouldn’t have been so stubborn. I just feel sorry for the situation where he had to overcome everything alone. Baseball is the only thing he can do. I could understand it physically. That desperate feeling."

The energy of empathy appears painfully in Gwangho’s university practical exam scene. The long take captures him running around trying to catch difficult fungo hits (batted balls hit by a bat to help fielders practice defense). Jeong Jaegwang trained harshly for one and a half months for this scene. Even when blisters formed on his palms and bled, he didn’t stop training. When he was tired and in pain, he would silently repeat Gwangho’s line. It is his favorite line in Not Out: "I want to know how far I can go."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.