By Kai Curry
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Simu Liu as Leo and Mark Wahlberg as Michael in Arthur The King. Photo Credit: Carlos Rodriguez
Movies about dogs are nearly always guaranteed winners, and “Arthur the King” is no different. Based on a true story, it follows adventure racer “Mike Light” (not the real person’s name) as he takes his “last chance” to finish first—and along the way meets a scruffy stray dog with big dark eyes that plead politely (he is ever a gentleman) for Mike’s camping trip meatballs.
When we meet Mike (Mark Wahlberg), he is flailing and failing badly. He has f’d up a race, been yelled at quite a bit, and humiliated by other teams. They call him “the best racer to never win a race.” Gah! Frustrating! Mike is now holed up at home in Colorado (not the real person’s home) making a bad go at working for his dad in real estate. He is married to a racer who has retired to be a mother to their daughter. Meanwhile, Mike still “selfishly” wants to redeem himself and finish first in a race before…I don’t know before what, before he gets old, I guess (the usual stigma against older athletes or athletes injured in any way is very much present). Mike’s wife (Juliet Rylance) says go for it, better he “follow his heart” and stop “beating himself up,” than continue being a pain in the a$$ to everyone around him, even though she insists that racing “doesn’t define” him (he protests yeah, it kinda does, I’ve been racing for a bajillion years).
Let’s talk about adventure racing. It’s like a mix of the show “Survivor” and Ironman. Each race takes several days (the one in the movie is shown to take about five) and crosses several miles (in this case, over 400, which is similar to the true event, though in a different place). What I find cool about this sport compared to others is that the teams get to choose their own route to each “transition point” along the way. For that purpose, they have a navigator (here played by Ali Suliman) and also for that purpose they argue constantly about which way to go (that part is annoying). At each transition point await tubs of food (although it is possible to get dangerously hungry and thirsty en route), and the teams are allowed a VERY SMALL amount of time to rest (like 20 minutes). If they have to receive first aid in any way (such as an IV for dehydration), there is a time penalty. The pressure!
Arthur The King. Photo Credit: Carlos Rodriguez
The race in the movie takes place in the Dominican Republic. It consists of hiking, kayaking, climbing, and all-terrain cycling through the jungle. The team, with minimal funding because no one wants to back a LOSER, arrives too close to the start, with not a lot of time to train, but that’s the breaks.
“We’ll make the best of it,” Mike says, trying his best at the outset to be a better team leader than he was the last time, when he didn’t listen to anyone and was just a mindless jerk forging ahead. The funders he did find have forced him to bring along an ex-teammate with whom he had the most beef—“Leo,” played by Simu Liu. Leo has become a social media star and so the team’s supporters want at least that guarantee that the race will not be a total bust.
There was a lot of questioning at the onset of filming about whether Liu and Wahlberg weren’t going to get along in real life, either. Significantly, when he was cast for the film, Liu deleted tweets relating to an assault Wahlberg committed against an Asian when Wahlberg was a teen. Probably, though it wasn’t always said outright, people were wondering if Liu was selling out for the film, giving up what he believed in—i.e. fighting anti-Asian hate—in order to have a seat alongside a major Hollywood actor. In interviews, Liu stated that he still believed what Wahlberg did was wrong, and expressed doubt as to Wahlberg’s claims to have changed. However, Liu also said that he deleted the tweets in the hope of making a new start and finding a new understanding between them. Did this happen in real life? Not sure. But it more or less does in the film, where Liu plays not so much the comic relief, but the relief to Wahlberg’s constant frowning, brow furrowed intensity. Liu is also intense….-ly competitive; however, his style is more dynamic, more fluid. You can see every emotion that crosses his face and the moment when he decides which emotion he’s going to follow—which is kind of cool. And since he is, in a way, the person with the most change to make, it makes his character very interesting.
Mike has a change to make, from selfish to selfless, but he has help—he finds a dog. The streets of Santo Domingo are crowded with strays and this one manages to single Mike out and follow him. That first introduction to the life of the discarded dogs was hard for me to take. I have been to cities that look like that. It’s real. There is a stray dog problem in much of the world and in addition to being without homes, they are abused. Part of what the movie did was raise awareness for that cause (the Arthur Foundation was started because of the real dog in the real story). Mike names the dog “Arthur” because he’s a “king”—he doesn’t beg, he goes for miles, even when he’s in pain, he’s dignified and kind. And when the group gets attached to him (which takes some time but evolves nicely), it’s hard to let Arthur go.
Throughout the race (announced by Bear Grylls, if that rows your kayak, or clips your carabiner, or ties your running shoes, or whatever), Mike, Leo, and the whole team learn, well, what it takes to be a real team, who really look out for each other and make team decisions, not just one or the other team member grouchily dragging the rest along solely for the purpose of winning.
They learn, thanks to good ole Arthur, and because Mike is trying, that winning means a lot of things and it isn’t just crossing a finish line.
Kai can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.