A Triumph Of South Korean (Anti-) War Cinema

Rating: Null/10 (28 September 2016)

I read much about this 2004 Korean War period piece movie, and alas, never got a time to watch it. Until I finally have lent my attention to this long, 2 hours and a half, sometimes brooding, sometimes violent film. And yes, I have enjoyed the film a lot. No, not the sheer amount of violence that it depicts, the clear and very sharp anti-war message that it delivers very powerfully and skillfully. I knew the Korean war was a merciless and bloody affair, but was not prepared to the utter array of scenes and blood-chilling battles the film showed us. What is more and the most important here is the straight-ahead and transparent message of "war is all hell". The story of two brothers taking part in this bloody war makes the whole thing more personal and even intimate, thus telling us how people could change in the midst of carnage and massacre. Jang Dong-gun as Lee Jin-tae and Won Bin as Lee Jin-seok, Jin-tae's younger brother are great protagonists and their personal tragedies make this awesome film eve more subtle and wanton at the same time. Civil war is awful and crazy. This film shows that plain and simple. I do recommend this epic highly