Falsification in film

Having just seen this film set against the 1991 Table Tennis World Championships in Chiba, I looked up the Times preview (by your excellent critic Kwaak Je-yup) from a few weeks ago. The article mentions "the sweat- and tear-soaked trail to victory," but looking up the records for Chiba 1991, I see that the women’s doubles champions were in fact Chen Zihe and Gao Jun of China.

I know that "based on a true story" means "99 percent fiction," but surely a film about a recent sporting event should at least get the result right (as Forever the Moment did for the 2004 Olympic handball final), or at the very, very least, skip the result (as My Way did for the 1948 marathon).

As I write, I see the film is running second to Avengers at the box office this week. I wonder how many of the local audience are aware of this falsification.

Michael Duffy

Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province