Hockey Dreams (2022 | Finland/South Korea | 104 minutes | Oskari Pastila and Janne Niskala)

When PyeongChang, South Korea was named hosts for the 2018 Winter Olympics, the nation was automatically given a spot to compete for the gold medal in ice hockey. Between the time of the announcement and the actual Olympics, South Korea had four years to field a respectable team. Not exactly a hockey juggernaut, the host nation had to basically start from scratch to field a team. 

Hockey Dreams follows the Korean national team, under the leadership of head coach (and first Korean-born NHL player) Jim Paek. Can they put together a team good enough to take on powerhouses like Canada, the United States, and whatever you call the Russian athletes not technically allowed to compete as Russia? Lord no; they finished twelfth of twelve countries competing. The standard Paek is hoping for is “not embarrassing.” 

As a sports fan (and a Kraken fan who hopes extreme patience is rewarded with a Stanley Cup win in my lifetime), I was fascinated by the access given to Paek and his team and what went into putting the team together. It was a bumpy road that would include narrow wins over countries like Japan and Poland and blowout losses to countries like Russia, Austria, and Canada before the Olympics. Hockey Dreams also puts the challenges of the national team in the context of expectations of the Korean people, noting that South Korean people consume more hard liquor than any other country and that top business leaders end up committing suicide when they are caught up in scandals (unless they’re pardoned in a show of national unity). 

The movie is surprisingly funny at times, with its Very Serious narrator (Andrea Miltner in the English-language version I watched) dropping left-field phrases you wouldn’t expect like “can of whoop ass” and telling you to Google “FUBAR” if you were unfamiliar with the phrase (while insisting it’s quite bad). 

This is very much an underdog story and a compelling one. I found myself getting a little misty eyed at the end. The joy that the Korean team and Korean people experienced because the team didn’t get blown out during the Olympics should be an inspiration to us all. 

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Hockey Dreams can be streamed as part of SIFF’s DocFest. Tickets can be found here.