Best Asian film for a long time(contains SPOILER)

Rating: 10/10 (20 July 2004)

The is not a ground-breaking film. It threads on themes already familiar with audience who have graced such war-related masterpieces such as Saving Private Ryan and it doesn't shy away from it. Yet the perfect balance of the various elements: action, love, history and the good acting, makes this film stand out head and shoulder above the pretentious mass.
To comment on the show without referring to its contents is inadequate. So there will be some spoilers.
The show is based on the Korean War. While many know about World War II, the younger generation (thats including me) usually have minimal knowledge regarding the Korean War or the Vietnam War. I think the show in a way raises awareness on how a clash of ideology can cause so much suffering among the innocents. Some soldiers in the film were forced to fight and it is obvious that they did not have a choice. They are but pawns for the political regime they were physically in. Even within the South Korean regime, a federation was formed to eradicate suspected communists by killing any suspects, including a massive number of innocent civilians.
The backbone of the show is the brotherly love between the two main leads. The film alternates between intense action scenes and scenes where they display their inner emotion, their physical and mental struggle. The brotherly love is deep and uncompromising, so much so that it eventually caused severe tension among themselves. The emotion is deep and thought-provoking, and its the kind acted with chemistry, the kind that will make you shed tears, not the kind of cursory love that you see in Pearl Harbor. Simply put, the performance by the actors and the scripting is superb.
The action is extremely intense. Although one may feel its a simple rip-off from Saving Private Ryan (which it is), it is still immensely powerful and strikes the fear and urgency of battles deep into you. As a realistic war film it is bound to have some gore in it, but it isn't excessive and doesn't take the focus of the show away. Strangely, I was particularly impressed by the scene where a huge (really huge) number of People's Liberation Army rushed over to join their North Korean counterpart....their dramatic entry to the war was a great blow to the South Koreans and US who were about to grab victory. Again...these are history stuff.
I will recommend this to anyone, not only for its deep emotional and entertaining value but also for its historical value.