North Korean refugee Ji-na (Lim Sung-mi) is trying to scrape a life together in South Korea: She's got a humble apartment, two physically taxing jobs, a dad stuck in China, and no friends. Lucky for her, her "moonlight" work is at a boxing gym and she might have a natural talent. Unlucky for her, her real estate agent (Lee Moon-bin) is a stalker, her mother (Lee Seung-yeon) is reluctant to reunite, and the female clients at the gym are mean girls who like to punch. At least the dojo's manager/coach (Oh Gwang-Rok) and his assitant Tae-soo (Baek Seo-Bin) are squarely in her corner. One sees sponsorship potential; the other, love.
If that sounds like Fighter has the makings of a feel-good Cinderella story, you're not wrong but Yun Jero's indie pic is infinitely more slice of life than slice of wedding cake. That means plenty of scenes in which we watch Ji-na clean (floors, mirrors, equipment) and observe (training sessions, online bouts, lockerroom banter). Lim does a good job of capturing the PTSD that must accompany going through the government's resettlement program which likely includes forms of indoctrination or deprogramming, depending on how you look at it. So how does one adapt to a shiny new world when everybody's stereotyped one as a fighting machine?
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