Chul-Jong (Yoo Ji-Tae, Attack the Gas Station) was the equivalent of a fifth-degree black belt in bowling until his professional career was cut short by a crippling car accident. Transformed into a seedy and cynical hustler, he now only bowls on the side for extra money to supplement his junkyard job. He is sustained by a gambling partnership (not to mention ambiguous relationship) with attractive and tenacious Hee-jin (Lee Jung-Hyun, A Petal), who is struggling to pay off a massive debt in order to keep her family’s bowling alley. Enter the devious bowling thugs who threaten both Chul-jong and Hee-jin’s plans. One day everything changes when they discover a regular patron of the alley is an autistic-savant whose bizarre, zen-like methods make him the most indomitable adversary the game has ever seen. They resolutely take him under their wing in order to best the evil competition and save the bowling alley. Split is a gloriously irreverent mash-up of White Men Can’t Jump, Rain Man, and Kingpin, injected with just the right amount of patented Korean pathos for a sometimes cringe-inducing, ultimately triumphant, and surprisingly poignant comedy-cum-sports thriller.

Presented with the support of Korean Cultural Center New York