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Here's something you might not have known from your Hollywood history lessons. The Korean War had actual Koreans in it -- and no, we don't just mean the ones who ran Rosie's Bar in M*A*S*H.
Clearly influenced by Hollywood's take on war-is-hell (notably Saving Private Ryan and Band Of Brothers), director Je-gyu Kang applies that genre's broad strokes and noisy carnage to a tale of his country's soul-scarring Civil War, one that includes not a single white face. The Americans are talked about, and the Chinese are seen en masse in one scene. But this is a movie about Koreans and their divided, traumatized country, couched not so subtly as metaphor in the story of two brothers.
The movie opens in modern times, with the excavation of a mass burial near the 38th parallel, and the ID of a G.I.'s remains. The enigma: A soldier of that name is listed as still being alive.
Flash back to 1950 and South Korean brothers Jin-Tae and Jin-Soek (Dong-Kun Jang and Bin Won), whose idyllic life with their family and Jin-Tae's fiancee (Eun-ju Lee) is shattered on the day war is declared. Jin-Soek is the frail, academic son, the hope of his family. When he is dragged away by conscription officers, Jin-Tae attempts to free him and is "volunteered" himself.
Once at the front, and bound by his promise to send his brother home, Jin-Tae makes a deal with his commanding officer, who promises to decommission Jin-Soek if Jin-Tae wins a medal of honour.
Thus does Jin-Tae fashion himself as a "supersoldier," volunteering for suicidal missions and executing his orders (and enemy soldiers) with increasing ruthlessness that begins to alienate him from the disgusted Jin-Soek.
The dehumanizing transformation of Jin-Tae is a ripe acting assignment, and the charismatic Dong-Kun Jang runs away with the movie once he gets going. Making his presence felt so strongly above the relentless chaos and bloody carnage is no small feat. Meanwhile, Director Kang doesn't stop at the noisier conventions of Hollywood war films. He peoples Jin-Tae's platoon with colourful Korean versions of "Charlie from Iowa and the kid from Brooklyn who's too young to die."
But what really separates Tae Guk Gi from Private Ryan's ilk is that the conflicted Koreans fight desperately in their own backyard, as opposed to U.S. movie soldiers who are always on an adventure abroad. It adds immeasurably to the pathos and emotion and conveys a better idea of what wars really involve.
(This film is rated 18-A)