Fans of Whiplash will recognize the physical and psychological bruising a young swimmer receives from his coach and mother in order to win a medal in Fourth Place, South Korean director Jung Ji-woo’s poetic and engrossing drama condemning the underlying sadism and psychosis of a competitive educational culture, which destroys children’s talents by denying them their right to do something just for fun. (It’s no coincidence that Jung’s co-producer is the National Human Rights Commission of Korea.) Subverting the feel-good formulas of such popular Korean sports films as Lifting King Kong and Forever the Moment with their “no pain, no gain” philosophy, the film instead highlights how swimming coach Kim Gwang-su (Park Hae-jun) takes out his own frustrations on his young student and repeats the same cycle of violence and bullying – an idea with burning relevance to Asia’s performance-driven culture.