Seoul 1988

Of all the films that the Korean Motion Picture Promotion Corporation created for the Games of the XXIV Olympiad, Lee Kwang-soo’s SEOUL 1988 is the most comprehensive. The film devotes much footage to sports dear to Koreans but regarded as minor in international terms: archery, table tennis (appearing as an official discipline for the first time at the Olympic Games), and shooting. And it revels in arcane details such as the American Florence Griffith Joyner’s spending sixteen minutes in makeup before each race and the need for shooters to hit the center of a target just one millimeter in diameter.