The Dream (2023)

The film opens with Yoon Hong-dae, a professional footballer portrayed by Park Seo-joon, caught in the aftermath of an off-field episode that leads his club to place him on disciplinary probation. Club officials convene, issue sanctions, and strip him of immediate playing duties; Hong-dae stands in a meeting room, terse and irritable, as he receives the formal notice that sidelines him from regular league action. Rather than fade into oblivion, the federation assigns him an unusual remit: he must take charge of a special national side assembled to enter the Homeless World Cup. Hong-dae accepts the posting with visible reluctance; he folds his arms, mutters objections, and makes it plain that the role feels like a demotion from the high expectations of his career.

Administrators draft a list of prospective team members and present Hong-dae with a roster unlike any he has managed. The squad consists entirely of people who are living on the margins: men and women who occupy shelters and street corners, many of whom have never played organized football or, as some staff report, have never even intentionally touched a ball. The players arrive at the training ground in mismatched clothing and with varied temperaments. One player wanders onto the field distractedly; another carries the hardened look of someone unaccustomed to trust. A few exhibit eccentric behaviour, punctuating drills with unpredictable actions; one player interrupts a passing exercise to strike up a conversation with a passerby, while another challenges the coach's authority with a blunt refusal to follow a set play. Support staff attempt to mediate, and Hong-dae responds with curt directives and a short leash, trying to impose professional standards on a group with no shared background.

Lee So-min, a videographer whose onscreen name is Lee Ji-eun in the film's credits, arrives at the first practice carrying a camera and a sputtering optimism about her own career. So-min has lost traction in the industry; the federation commissions her to film a documentary about Hong-dae and the team. She crouches by the touchline, zooms the lens into faces, and records interviews with trembling hands. Her approach is intimate: she follows players to the locker room, catches them laughing awkwardly in a corridor, films Hong-dae barking orders during set-piece drills, and lingers on small gestures -- a player tying someone else's shoelace, another closing his eyes before a penalty routine. So-min's footage begins as a behind-the-scenes chronicle, and she wires microphones to the coach and several players to capture raw exchanges.

Training develops into a series of practical lessons and interpersonal confrontations. Hong-dae introduces basic drills: short passing, dribbling through cones, shooting at a single portable goal. He times sprints with a stopwatch and clips a whiteboard to illustrate formations. Several players do not immediately grasp positional responsibility; their first scrimmage dissolves into chaotic improvised play, with participants chasing the ball in a loose cluster rather than holding their lines. Hong-dae grows visibly exasperated; he paces the pitch, calls timeouts, slaps his palm against his thigh after a missed cross. With So-min still filming, these moments become sequences in the documentary that capture tension between a professional ethos and the players' fractured lives. The coach, initially cranky and skeptical, struggles to communicate standards of discipline while acknowledging the fragile stability many of his charges experience outside the training ground.

Personal backstories seep into the narrative through So-min's interviews and through scenes in which players confide in her off-camera. A player named Min-soo speaks haltingly about losing a job and a place to live after an accident in factory work; another, called Tae-hyun, reveals he fled an abusive home and took to the streets for shelter. These disclosures occur in cramped rooms above a shelter, on rooftop terraces where players smoke and exchange jokes, or in municipal soup kitchens after evening practices. So-min edits these interviews into early cuts of the documentary, intercutting training footage with quiet confessions, and she screens the material internally to the project's producers. The assembly produces a compassionate portrait that simultaneously tracks Hong-dae's frustration and the players' tentative efforts to reclaim agency.

As weeks pass, Hong-dae begins to alter his posture. He watches a slow learner practice ball control until his hands go numb; he raises a player who had avoided contact to the starting line, and he reprimands another for missing a defensive assignment, then follows the rebuke with a specific correction. He stays late after a rainy training session to teach a striker how to curl the ball with the outside of his foot, kneeling in the mud as he demonstrates technique. His gruff exterior softens in small increments: he shares a protein bar with an injured teammate, he allows a player to take a penalty in training despite prior mistakes, and he laughs--briefly, almost against his will--when the team celebrates a successful drill with an impromptu group photo. So-min's camera records all these shifts. The footage captures the coach's gradual investment; it also begins to attract public attention when excerpts surface on social media through the documentary's promotional clips.

Media interest grows as So-min's documentary team releases trailers and the federation posts training highlights. Television producers call; the captain of the team appears on local talk shows with scars and a steady voice, describing the dignity football grants him. News segments show Hong-dae walking with players across a rain-slick car park, ordering them to sprint up a set of concrete steps, and then kneeling to help one of them lace his boot. Viewers respond to images that balance hardship and resilience. Hong-dae, still wary of the spotlight, finds himself placed on panel discussions and coaching clinics as a spokesperson for the project. He sits for interviews, answers questions about strategy and discipline, and receives unexpected praise for his willingness to lead a marginalized squad. The publicity transforms the coach into a television figure; his face and the team's emblem appear in a montage that plays on sports channels and in lifestyle segments.

During this rise, Hong-dae receives a tempting professional offer that would remove him from the special national team. Club executives and an agent present him with a contract proposal that promises a return to higher-tier coaching or playing responsibilities; negotiations take place in a sunlit office where a stack of documents and a fountain pen lie ready. Hong-dae pauses over the letter; his fingers hover on the ink, and he weighs his options privately in a quiet corridor. The offer would accelerate his rehabilitation in mainstream sports. For a moment he contemplates signing and stepping away from the players who have begun, slowly, to rely on him. He closes the folder, puts it back into the envelope, and returns it to the agent with a curt refusal. Instead of abandoning the team, he resigns himself to the commitment the federation made and remains the manager as the squad prepares for international travel.

Preparations for the Homeless World Cup include administrative steps and physical arrangements. The federation secures passports, arranges for travel visas, and books flights for the team to Europe. The players assemble their few personal belongings into duffel bags. At the airport they are photographed by local press; So-min shoots behind the wing of the plane, capturing travelers waving and the coach checking a printed itinerary. The flight lands in Europe, where the local organizing committee greets them with signs and warm handshakes. The team is lodged in austere, shared accommodations near the tournament site; they take meals in a communal dining hall, where they exchange strategies over trays of food and practice set pieces in a grassy courtyard between scheduled matches.

At the Homeless World Cup venue, the matches proceed under the gaze of international volunteers, fans, and local media. The stadium is modest--a temporary arrangement of stands, banners, and proximity to urban streets--but the intensity of play is real. Hong-dae runs his team through game plans: he positions defenders to close down flanks, instructs midfielders to play one-touch passes, and tells a striker to time his runs to split a two-man defensive wall. The players execute those instructions with varying degrees of success. In some matches a miscommunication results in a conceded goal: a midfielder hesitates and the ball slips through, eliciting a frustrated shout from Hong-dae and a grimace from the keeper. In another game the team scores after a well-worked set-piece: a corner kick curls into the box, a header ricochets off a defender, and a forward slides in to nod the ball over the line. The camera follows the celebration--the coach lifts his arms, players tumble into each other--then quickly returns to the documentary's footage of So-min filming the raw emotion.

Across the tournament the team engages in a sequence of matches that test their cohesion and stamina. In one game they recover from an early deficit: a defender blocks a shot with his shin, the ball sails to a winger who seizes the chance and launches a counterattack, which culminates in an equalizing goal in the final minutes. In another match they lose narrowly after a late penalty awarded to the opponent; Hong-dae argues with a referee at the sideline and then sits on a bench with his head bowed. Each match contains discrete moments--clever saves, tactical adjustments, substitutions where an exhausted player gives way to someone who has never started before, and sideline interventions where Hong-dae draws diagrams in the dirt with a boot.

The team does not win the tournament. They exit the competition without lifting the Cup. Tournament officials announce final standings; other national sides celebrate with trophies and confetti. Yet in the last cluster of games--the ones that conclude their run--the team performs in a way that resonates with the audience. Viewers in the stands rise to applaud as the team fights back from deficits, players make selfless passes to set up better-positioned teammates, and one match ends with the squad holding their opponents scoreless after a disciplined defensive showing. Spectators chant their names; volunteers and international press crowd the mixed zone to ask questions. So-min's documentary presents those final matches in long, unedited sequences that show sweat-streaked faces, exhausted smiles, and the coach delivering a short speech to his players about pride and effort after the final whistle. The footage plays in newsrooms and online, and the documentary attracts an audience that warms to the narrative arc of the team's struggle.

Back in South Korea, the documentary's release changes public perception of both So-min and Hong-dae. Reviews and viewer responses note the sincerity of the footage; broadcasters invite So-min to speak about the making of the documentary and about the players' stories. She appears on talk shows and in news segments where she answers questions about access, about consent, and about the editing process. Her career stabilizes as producers commission follow-up work. Hong-dae receives messages from former teammates and from club officials who had questioned his judgment; they offer reconciliatory gestures and rehire discussions. Federation representatives and club executives negotiate his return to mainstream football; he signs papers and strolls through a training complex that once felt alien to him under a different set of pressures. In the film's final sequence Hong-dae emerges back into major league football. Cameras follow him onto a large professional practice ground where youth players and staff call greetings; he reenters the professional circuit, attending press conferences and resuming duties with a top-level team. The screen shows one last scene in which Hong-dae walks through a tunnel into stadium light, and the film cuts to black.

The closing titles identify the film as being based on a true event, associated with the Homeless World Cup that took place in 2010. The credits list the principal participants, acknowledge the real players and organizers involved in the life events that inspired the story, and note production details. The narrative ends with the concrete outcomes: the team does not claim the trophy, the documentary raises public awareness and revives So-min's professional prospects, and Hong-dae regains standing in the world of professional football as he steps back into major league responsibilities. The last image remains of Hong-dae entering the professional realm once again, his posture steadied after the journey he undertook with a team of players whom he once doubted and later helped to marshal on the international stage.

At the end of The Dream (2023), the South Korean homeless soccer team, coached by Yoon Hong-dae, competes in the Homeless World Cup in Europe. Although they do not win the tournament, their spirited performance in the final matches wins the admiration of the crowd and viewers of the documentary being filmed about them. Hong-dae's dedication to the team helps rehabilitate his own career, and he is shown returning to professional soccer in Korea. The documentary filmmaker Lee So-min also revives her career. The players' personal journeys remain open-ended but hopeful, emphasizing their resilience and dignity beyond the competition.

The ending unfolds as follows:

The team, composed of homeless men with varied and difficult backgrounds, arrives in Europe to participate in the 2010 Homeless World Cup. Despite their lack of experience and skill compared to other teams, they are determined to compete. Their first matches are tough, and they face strong opponents like Costa Rica and Brazil, losing some games but showing moments of promise and teamwork.

In the final matches, the team plays with heart and unity, capturing the attention and respect of the spectators. Their effort transcends the scoreboard, highlighting their personal growth and the bonds they have formed. The documentary crew, led by Lee So-min, captures these moments, showing the humanity and struggles behind each player's story.

Yoon Hong-dae, initially reluctant and cranky, has grown into a committed coach who believes in his team. He rejects a tempting offer to leave coaching, choosing instead to stay with the team through the tournament. His loyalty and transformation are clear as he supports the players on and off the field.

Lee So-min, whose career was also faltering, finds renewed purpose through the documentary project. Her relationship with Hong-dae evolves from conflict to mutual respect as they work together to tell the team's story authentically.

The film closes with Hong-dae returning to major league soccer in Korea, symbolizing his personal redemption. The players' futures are left hopeful but realistic; the film does not depict miraculous life changes but rather honors their dignity and resilience. The final scenes emphasize that victory is not only about winning the cup but about the courage to dream and persevere despite hardship.

Thus, the ending scene by scene:

1. The team arrives in Europe, visibly nervous but determined, preparing for their first match.
2. They face strong teams and lose some matches, but their effort and teamwork improve visibly.
3. In a key moment, the injured player Hwan-dong stays with the team to support them emotionally.
4. In-seon, a player searching for his missing girlfriend, finds some closure through the team experience.
5. The final matches are played with passion; the team does not win but earns applause and admiration.
6. The documentary footage shows the players' backstories and their moments of joy and struggle.
7. Hong-dae declines a lucrative offer to leave coaching, reaffirming his commitment.
8. Lee So-min's documentary is completed, revitalizing her career.
9. The film ends with Hong-dae rejoining professional soccer in Korea, symbolizing his redemption.
10. The players' futures remain open but hopeful, underscoring the film's message about resilience and dignity beyond sport.

Each main character's fate is clear: Hong-dae redeems himself professionally and personally; So-min revives her career; the players gain a sense of purpose and community, though their long-term situations remain realistic and nuanced. The film closes on a note of human dignity and the power of second chances.

The 2023 Korean movie The Dream does not have a post-credit scene. The film concludes with the main character Hong Dae showing up at the airport to accompany his homeless football team to their international game, emphasizing team spirit and finishing what they started, and there is no indication of any additional scene after the credits.

Regarding the American film Dream Scenario (2023) starring Nicolas Cage, it also does not have any post-credit scenes. The credits run for about 7 minutes with no extra content afterward.

Therefore, for the Korean The Dream (2023), there is no post-credit scene to describe.

Yoon Hong-dae is a former soccer star facing a career crisis after being disciplined for assaulting a reporter. He is semi-forced to coach a hastily formed national homeless soccer team for the Homeless World Cup. His personal motivation includes dealing with his troubled past, including his mother who conned people and fled, and his love interest Jinju, whom he met while homeless. His goal is to make Jinju happy and find redemption through coaching the team.

The team is initially selected by So-min, the documentary director, who chooses players based on their compelling life stories rather than soccer skills, which frustrates Hong-dae. Only one player, Hwan-dong, has real soccer talent but gets injured early. Later, they recruit In-seon, a young player searching for his missing girlfriend, who becomes the main shooter. Brazilian players are temporarily added to improve performance but are later benched to maintain team integrity. This mix creates tension but also growth as the team learns to play together.

In-seon is a young player recruited to the team after Hwan-dong's injury. He is searching for his missing girlfriend, whose body was never found after a factory accident. His personal subplot involves his emotional struggle with this loss and his fight with Japanese team players who resemble his girlfriend. His involvement in the team is partly motivated by the hope of finding her and gaining exposure through the tournament.

Hong-dae and So-min have a contentious relationship; So-min manages the team and pushes for dramatic, scripted moments for the documentary, often clashing with Hong-dae's desire for genuine team development. So-min's focus on compelling stories over soccer skills causes tension, but their interactions also drive the narrative, highlighting themes of redemption and the struggle between authenticity and media portrayal.

The team struggles initially, losing their first match against Costa Rica despite practice. They face criticism for using Brazilian players to boost their performance, leading Hong-dae to bench the Brazilians and rely on In-seon. Injuries, internal conflicts, and external pressures test the team's cohesion. A notable turning point is when the team manages to tie a game against a kid's soccer team under difficult circumstances, showing their growth and resilience despite their shortcomings.

I need to clarify that the search results contain information about multiple 2023 films with "Dream" in the title, including "Dream Scenario" (starring Nicolas Cage) and a Korean sports film called "Dream." However, I cannot find specific information about a film titled exactly "The Dream" produced in 2023 in these search results.

The search results do reference a Korean film called "Dream" (2023) that appears to be a sports comedy-drama about homeless soccer players, which seems to be family-friendly based on user reviews describing it as "a light and kind hearted movie with joy" and "suitable for the whole family."

However, without confirmed information about a film specifically titled "The Dream" from 2023, I cannot provide an accurate assessment of its family-friendliness or content warnings. The search results do not contain details about this specific title.

To give you an accurate answer about whether "The Dream" (2023) is family-friendly and what potentially objectionable content it contains, I would need search results that specifically reference that exact film title. Could you provide additional context about this film, such as the director's name, main cast members, or the country of origin? This would help me locate the correct information.