My Little Hero

My Little Hero
Directed by	Kim Seong Hun
Produced by	Kim Rea Won
Release date	May 29, 2013 (2013-05-29)
Running time	135 minutes
Country	Korea
Language	Korean

My Little Hero is a Korean movie about music and drama that was released in 2013. It was produced by CJ Entertainment and directed by Seong-Hoom Kim. “My Little Hero” is a combination of a stage play and narrative drama. The total length of the film is 135 minutes. The film tells the story of a third-rate music director and a group of kids who pursue their dreams. The musical director craves advancement and participates in a musical audition which picks the role of the king in the upcoming Broadway-bound musical "The Great King Jung-Jo." At the audition, he meets a multicultural child who becomes partners with him and experiences his first conflict between his aspirations and public views.

Plot

The entertainment industry has always been popular in South Korea. Many people dream of being able to star on the big stage. The protagonists in this movie are a 30-year-old musical director and a young boy. The musical director is named Yoo II-Han. He claims to have graduated from Manhattan University but, in fact, under the pressure of economic conditions, didn’t finish his studies and dropped out of school. After that, he returned to work in Korea. In a failed musical performance he messed up a big investment musical, and after that he could only rely on producing children’s drama to earn a living. During their performance, there is almost no audience. It can be said that his career has been at a low ebb. Moreover, he is a man of conceited vainglory, and he deceived others about his academic qualifications.

The other protagonist of the movie is named Young-Kwang. He is a mixed-race child with heritage in both South Korea and Philippines. He and his mother came to Korea for a better life, but they were abandoned by his father. Because he is of mixed-race, his skin color is deeper than other children's. He often suffers from unfair treatment, and sometimes he is even bullied by another child. But he doesn’t care, he just wants his father back. He is a talented boy and is gifted with a spectacular voice. Young-Kwang dreams to sing on a big stage so that his father can see him on TV. He has been looking forward to his father’s return to his family.

Young-Kwang signs up for a music talent show in order to express his longing for his father on the stage. In an accidental opportunity, Yoo II-Han was given the opportunity to participant in this music talent show, because another music director has temporarily withdrawn from the match. In the competition, the producer wants to find a child actor to play the role of “The King of Korea”. It is set to invite five music directors as mentors, Yoo II-Han is one of them. All of the music directors besides Yoo II-Han are famous artists. Each of them needs to choose a child to train and perform together on the stage. Also, the contestants are chosen through blind votes. Which means the music directors can only choose the member of their team by judging the contestants by their voices. At last, Yoo ll-Han and Young Kwang formed a group. In fact, Yoo II-Han didn’t want to be in the same group with the little boy because of the boy’s skin color. Since his skin is dark brown, it is obvious that he is not pure Korean. Nevertheless, the purpose of this program is to find a Korean child as a representative. For Yoo II-Han, the little boy could never win the game at all and he even wants to quit the game.

Young Kwang is a boy who works hard and has great perseverance. He knows that other contestants are more professional than him, and he has never attended any professional training. Luckily, the little boy never thinks of giving up and he just trains harder. He practices upside down day and night. Although his body is wounded and scarred, he still insists on practicing. His behavior moved Yoo II-Han. At the beginning of training, Young Kwang was practicing alone. But now, Yoo II-Han trains with the little boy and their relationship has grown to friendship.

They made rapid progress and got recognition from the audience during the performance. However, as they get closer and closer to success, the biggest problem arises. The producers of the program think that the appearance of the little boy is not suitable for the role “The King of Korea”. The producers wanted to cancel the qualification of the little boy. When Yoo II-Han heard the news, he felt very angry. At first, he argued with the producers, and it doesn’t help. In the end, he begged another mentor to help Young Kwang finish the show.

The reason why Yoo II-Han works so hard to help Young Kwang chase his dream is that he saw the unyielding spirit in Young Kwang. It was like seeing himself as a young man. Therefore, Yoo II-Han tries his best to help Young Kwang perform on the stage. It’s a happy ending for the movie. The ending of the film is a scene of his presence in Broadway, New York, USA.

Production

Filming began on March 25, 2012 and finished September 16, 2012 in Broadway, New York City. The last scene filmed involved character Yoo II-Han (Kim Rae-Won) walking among the hustle and bustle in busy Broadway. Actually, the early working Korean title was “Dream,” then changed to “Dream, My Little Hero,” then changed to “Superstar”. In the end, it was changed to “My Little Hero”. The movie did not perform well at the box office in South Korea. The film sold 183,650 movie tickets during its theatrical run.

Cast & Actor

The Actual Name	Actor name in the movie
Kim Rae Won	Yoo II Han
Ji Dae Han	Young Kwang (Glory)
Jo An	Sung Hee
Hwang Yong Yeon	Sung Joon
Kim Sung Eun	Show Host
Lee Kwang Soo	Jung II
Lee Sung Min	Hee Suk
Park Sung Taek	Kim Pil Sung [Young Gwang’s father]
Han Sa Myung	[Aid room engineer]
Song Wook Kyung	[Thunder Man member – bad guy]
Hong In	[Villain captain]
Im Chul Hyung	Choi Ho Jin
Kim Kang II	General Manager
Lee Min Ah	Choi Hoon’s mother
Kim Won Hae	Ha PD

Kim Rea Won: A South Korean actor born on March 19, 1981. He graduated from Chung-Ang University. Kim Rea Won initially wanted to become a professional basketball player. Unfortunately, he had to give up his dream of basketball after injuring a tendon in his ankle. Thus, he turned to acting and studied Theatre and Film. He started his debut as an actor in 1997 with a short role on the teenage drama series titled "Me." His sincere smile caught the public's attention because of his previous role in the SBS drama series "Punch". In 2003, Kim became a household name after acting in the popular series "Attic Cat".

Ji Dae Han: A half Korean-Sri Lankan was born in 2001. “My Little Hero” is his first movie. To his credit, he was awarded Best New Actor in 2013 (49^th) BaekSang Arts Awards.

Jo An: A South Korean actress born on November 14, 1982. She graduated from Chung-Ang University. She was awarded Best New Actress (Lifting King Kong) -2010 (46th) BaekSang Arts Awards- March 26th.

Hwang Young Yeon: He is half South Korean-Ghanaian born in South Korea.

Lee Kwang Soo: A South Korean entertainer, model and actor. He was born on July 14, 1985. Kwang Soo started modeling once out of the military service in 2007 and got some lucrative modeling offers in the very early stages of his career. He participated in many varieties of shows and movies, and is very popular among the audience. In addition to acting, Kwang Soo is also known for being one of the regular cast members of the South Korean variety show Running Man since 2010.

Lee Sung Min:A popular South Korean actor. He was born on December 4, 1968. He graduated from Daegu Science College and first began acting in 2004. He is best known for his supporting roles in many films and television dramas, notably his much-praised performances in Golden Time, Broken, and Misaeng: Incomplete Life. Lee Sung Min is concluded as an actor who is very curious, nice and always full of laughter.

Producer

Kim Seong hun: A Korean director born on February 20, 1971. He graduated from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. His main achievement was winning the best director award at the 51^st Korean film awards. Kim Seong-hun began his filmmaking career as an assistant director on the romantic comedies "Oh! Happy Day" (2003). He also directed "How the Lack of Love Affects Two Men" (2006) and "A Hard Day" (2014).

Propaganda

This article basically introduces the main character and the structure of the movie. Briefly, it has several attractive points for the audience. First of all, the plot of this movie is reasonable and touchable, it combines drama and music to guide the plot of the whole movie. Secondly, the promotion images show the scene where both of the two main characters are practicing, which also looks pretty touchable and warm. Additionally, this is the first time for main character, played by Kim Rae Won, to reappear in front of the audience for a long time. Last but not least, the film also invites some famous Korean stars to participate in it, such as Lee Sung-min and Lee Kwang-soo.

Evaluation

In fact, although it’s a music and drama movie, it actually has a bit of controversy about regional issues. During the movie, when the little boy and his friend appear, their skin color has already brought them a certain topicality. The little boy, Young Kwang, feels inferior to himself because he is a mixed-race child. He and his friend are both from primary school, they have already realized that the color of their skin is different from others. It makes them “special” in a group. There is a slight display in the movie where two boys are rejected by other children because of their different skin color. There is another scene where two little boys are sitting on the steps of the playground and they are discussing and using sunscreen for girls. Their purpose is to make themselves look paler, just like other Koreans. The existence of the little boys is the main line of the whole movie. They use their “special features" and hard work to guide the whole plot of the movie, which is more attractive and creative.

The movie overall gets a good evaluation. The audience was successfully touched by the charm of the main character Yoo II-Han. He showed his warm, good-heart in the movie, even though he was an overconfident and arrogant guy. Also, the little young boy captured the hearts of many film viewers, especially the scene where he was performing on the stage. Some of the audience even cried. Except for the personality of the main character, the background music and stage performance of the movie is excellent. It raises the bad for the whole movie.