Review: No Breathing (2014) ~ My Feeling Heart

I watched this for Seo In Guk. Sorry not sorry. 🤪

A story of sports, rivalry, friendship and self rediscovery: this is what No Breathing is. It is a movie that follows the life of Won-il, a gifted swimmer yet reckless high schooler who now dislikes water due to his father's (a national athlete) death. However, as he got expelled at school after getting into a fight with his classmates, he suddenly finds himself thrown in a sports high school where he meets an old rival named Woo-sang, a national athlete stripped off of his title due to displays of violence during the Olympics selection. With his own personal problems and a rival in tow, can Won-il be able to surpass Woo-sang and stand proud in the world of swimming again?

I've said this before and I'll say it again: I watched this for Seo In Guk. I was backtracking a lot of his previous works that I have not been able to see yet, and this happens to be one of them. Not that the movie's bad. It was okay, maybe a little bit less than what I expected it would be, but entertaining nonetheless.

Point one, the movie was simple. It takes that safe, tried and tested route, which was probably why it wasn't that memorable for me (except for Won-il. but of course. lol). Second, the plot was a little bit so-so. Like... There's something missing kind of so-so? I don't know. Both Seo In Guk and Lee Jong Suk had great acting skills and comedic timing, and I felt that a lot of potential and plot material from casting them together got wasted by not giving them more opportunities to talk (as in talk talk... if you get what I mean), bond or even do a more engaging bromance than what was already shown. Upping the rivalry a bit more and throwing in additional competitions for the two leads could probably have sufficed for that though, as the last 15 minutes of the movie seemed to be its highest peaks for me.

On a lighter note, I did love the movie's idea about hard work and talent. I specifically love that scene where Won-il got mad at a classmate for bullying a friend which resulted to the latter's disqualification in the competition. And yeah, Seo In Guk's adorable goofiness as Won-il was a stealer, too. Those mukbang scenes were gold, and watching Seo In Guk eat soooo well in the movie makes me as hungry as him all the time. 😂 Add to that the fact that they filmed some parts of the movie in Davao? 😯 Had I known In Guk around that time, I probably would have sneaked to the filming location like crazy. Lol.

This is the Philippines, people!

But then again... There are still some things that you just can't gloss over, even with a shirtless Seo In Guk on screen. Point one, the movie had a (bad) habit of abruptly cutting a scene towards something else (say scenes that are new or something very random) and I just wished they went a little easy on that. Say for instance, there was one part of the scene in Davao where we see Won-il sulking by the beach. Woo-sang, who was out for a walk, saw Won-il all alone. He then takes his headphones off, and... tada! It was cut to a scene in their school's entrance. What a waste. That could have potentially been used for connecting deeper to the two main leads, but was instead cut short. No talking. No bonding. No bromance. Nada nada nada.

Two, Yuri. Sorry, but I really find her a little bit off. Yes she was pretty, but apart from the eye candy, it seems that she was placed in the movie only as a love interest. Nope, nothing more. That part where she was aiming to be an aspiring musician? In a world full of sports? I think that was rather... random. Ha. Don't get me wrong, her delivery wasn't that bad. Sure she sometimes felt a little flat, but I think she really did her best to portray what has been asked of her. It's just that... her character doesn't seem to be of purpose at all Should we ever consider removing that "romance" tag, I bet the movie would do fine as it already is, even without her in it.

Yet taken in as a whole, No Breathing sure is a funny and light hearted movie. Overall it wasn't bad, but wasn't really exceptional either. It was an okay, even good of a watch, and if you are in for fan service and something not that overarching, go ahead and give No Breathing a try.