Sports films are a kind of cinematic comfort food. While sometimes mingled with tragedy, victory is still the ultimate goal of these classics. From Remember the Titans to Coach Carter , they’re unavoidable in Western cinema. Korean sports drama The Match shares those comforting themes of mentor and prodigy, but in its depiction of Go—a strategy game even more complex than chess that sees players place white or black tiles on a board to claim territories and their opponents pieces—director Kim Hyung-joo stretches the format by centering two perspectives based on real people. Lee Chang-ho ( #Alive ’s Yoo Ah-in ) and his teacher and mentor, Cho Hun-hyun, played by Squid Game and Kpop Demon Hunters star Lee Byung-hun , find themselves in a moving

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