a powerful war drama and a moving brotherhood story in the Korean war

Rating: 8/10 (28 May 2009)

I know very little about director Je-gyu Kang. He made three films overall and quite interestingly none after 'Taegukgi' from 2004. His creation is very different from the one coming from the other famous Korean director Ki-duk Kim, or from the Korean commercial cinema (horror or science fiction films) which is somehow known in the world.
'Taegukgi' can be considered to a large extent a replica to 'Saving Private Ryan' by Spielberg. It's a war story involving two brothers caught in the turmoil of the Korean war, with very different personalities and destinies. One of them is the strong character and his initial purpose is saving his younger and weaker brother, sparing him the rest of the war and sending him home. In time his destiny changes and his character seems to head towards the apparently inescapable brutality and insanity of the war. The film becomes at the same time a realistic rendition of a civil war in which the borders between good and evil slowly disappear, as well as a metaphor of the tearing apart of the Korean nation, with the two brothers ending by fighting on opposite camps. The final sacrifice reestablishes the balance but the reconciliation and the peace never come, only death puts end to the life long waiting and desire for getting back together.
Much of the screening time is filled with the war scenes, some of the best I have ever seen, and Spielberg's movie comes again in mind as the obvious reference. It is hard to say whether the story of the two brothers happens on the background of the war, or it is the war that catches the center of the attention and the story just flows with it. The effect is however strong, the story is moving and for the non-Korean viewer this is an opportunity to learn something about the history and feelings of a nation that is still divided.