Brothers At War

Rating: 6/10 (29 November 2011)

As the conflict between North and South Korea reaches a new high in 1950, two brothers are conscripted and forced to abandon the rest of their family in order to defend their country. The younger, Jin-seok, is the pride of his family, a peaceful, quiet student. His older brother, Jin-tae, has a good heart but a more fiery temper and is willing go to any length to protect Jin-seok and send him on his way home as soon as possible. The trials that this war inflicts on both men will transform each of them in different ways.
This above would be Tae Guk Gi in a nutshell, although the film covers a lot of ground and is quite epic in its scale. Many reviewers have mentioned the influence Saving Private Ryan may have had on this movie and although I this this has been exaggerated, I can understand where they are coming from. The battle scenes do seem to borrow stylistically from SVP. They are quite intense, very big yet intensely up close and personal at times. They plunge the viewers right in the middle of all this chaos and can be quite gruesome. There are quite a few battles throughout the movie, and they unfortunately make less of an impact as time goes by due to some repetitiveness.
Having said that, despite the epic scale and quite a few characters being depicted, the bulk of Tae Guk Gi focuses on the two brothers and how war affects them. It is here that the movie scores its better points but also where it fails at times. The changes they both go through are well depicted but unfortunately, from beginning to end the movie is wrapped in melodramatic overtones that make for an awkward viewing at times. Cheesy dialog, overacting and a downright silly score that accentuates it all are all part of the experience.
The movie is nonetheless an intense experience, features likable if flawed protagonists. The characters surrounding them are also interesting and you wish you got to know some of them a little better. The movie gets props for portraying evils done by both sides during a conflict. Around the midway point of the movie, things start becoming interesting as it becomes evident nothing is black and white in war but unfortunately, the script doesn't make the best of this.
This is a recommended war movie as well as a fine film on blood ties and how they cope when everything is on the line.