An emotional, heartbreaking portrayal of war

Rating: 10/10 (15 January 2006)

Taegukgi: Movie comment (Pardon my poor English; I'm an Asian and haven't been learning English for long) Tae Guk Gi distinguishes itself from other war movies in the sense that rather than glorifying war and portraying it as a symbol of heroic patriotism, it actually demonises war and looks at it through the eyes of someone who WAS actually in the war: a gory, harrowing and mind bending experience.
This movie is somewhat similar to Saving Private Ryan in that they both involve family ties. SPR focuses on someone who believes in patriotism for his family; that is, SPR's message is that being fighting for the country instead of coming back for the family would do the family proud (and makes going to war look like something that is admirable). Tae Guk Gi takes a different approach in that it portrays war as a dehumanising, psychologically traumatic experience that tears families apart and causes nothing but immense grief for both sides.
However, where SPR fails to depict the pain of 'losing everything' in a war and instead views it as something that is honorable, Taegukgi is much more emotional and goes through the painful story of how these brothers, once best friends, became traumatized and poisoned by the sheer violence and horrors of the war, and as a result, became different people. Hence, where SPR fails, Taegukgi shines.
Many people have told me how this movie left them crying for hours. In fact, I was pretty close to crying too. In this movie, war is being heavily condemned -- it costs millions of innocent lives; it rips people off their sanity and it divides brothers and turns them against each other. Although the story is not told from an objective point of view (rather, it is told from an emotional point of view), it still manages to portray war in a different way to other war movies.
Another distinguishing feature of Taegukgi as a war film is that it does not look at war at one point of view; rather, it also depicts the evils within the protagonists' country (e.g. the scene where the protagonist's fiancée was killed). This movie seems to convey a message that 'In a war situation, your allies are your enemies at the same time'.
Taegukgi itself has its own share of surreal, gory battle scenes and surgical violence. I doubt that the scene where maggots were found crawling on top of a soldier's belly won't leave its viewers cringing in disgust.
I can see why this movie had been a box office hit in Korea. (In fact, this movie attracted more than 10 million audiences) It gives you an entirely different perception of war, taken from both the good and bad sides of the view, complete with beautiful setting and top-notch acting.
10/10.