Influenced by Saving Private Ryan, but much better

Rating: 10/10 (13 September 2004)

Tae Guk Gi is a Korean movie (so it's subbed) about the Korean War. And it's probably one of the best war movies I've seen in a long time. You can immediately see Saving Private Ryan's influence, but in my opinion, Tae Guk Gi blows Saving Private Ryan out of the water.
I remember when I came out of Saving Private Ryan, I had liked it, but I was also a bit disappointed. It was semi-revolutionary for its time for its accurate portrayal of war, with the realistic gore, audio, visuals, etc, but the overall story was weak, and seemed more like a collection of battles and hotspots tied together by said story. Overall, it was a bit too cautious story-wise (yes it was graphically risqué for it's time, but story-wise, it was mild at best). If anything, SPR was at best an introduction to people who hadn't quite grasped how bad war is, and for that, sure, SPR was an excellent eye-opener.
Tae Guk Gi on the other hand, uses its time much more effectively (and is shorter than SPR at that) and doesn't skimp out on story, while maintaining, if not raising, the audio/visual bar. It addresses the horrors of war much better than Saving Private Ryan ever did (for example SPR barely mentioned the Holocaust) and is simply much more encompassing. It doesn't skirt away from ethical issues, raising them quite often actually, down from the infantry level, all the way to the government level. Compared to Tae Guk Gi, SPR almost seems like nothing more than a visually stunning, flag-waving movie.
Anyway, great movie, I'm very satisfied, which is rare. The one major complaint I can say I had was movie length, but your mileage may vary on this one. After the Lord of the Ring giants, I just snapped with long movies. Tae Guk Gi goes through most of the multi-year Korean War, but it does it well, and weighs in at less than 2.5 hrs (note SPR is 2 hrs 50 min).
There are a few other minor complaints but they aren't worth mentioning (their magnitude relative to overall satisfaction is too little).