Lazy Sunday: Taekgukgi Reviewed

Despite my general dislike for its overtly melodramatic serials and hormonally charged horror films, Korea still scores brownie points with me today for managing to keep me on the edge of my seat with its answer to Saving Private Ryan. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Taekgukgi (The Brotherhood of War).

Recently released in theatres AND DVD (suprisingly), Taekgukgi retains the dramatic flavour Koreans are so fond of but makes up for it in spades with killer action, strong performances, and some of the best battle scenes I've seen since Black Hawk Down (and no, Windtalkers doesn't count). We open on an excavation scene, somewhere on a hill that seems to be the place of a significant battle during the Korean War. As the excavation team contacts the families of those whose remains are identified, Lee Jin-Seok, an old veteran receives a call. The team may have found his brother's remains.

The rest of the story is then told Saving Private Ryan-style, in flashbacks. We see Seoul in 1950, before the war, and how two brothers' lives are changed inexplicably when North Korea starts marching on its southern counterpart. Before long, they are drafted, find out the harsh realities of war, and how nothing is sacred, or safe.

In essence, Taekgukgi is not unlike those Hindi movies we grew up with, where two brothers get separated as children, and then meet again on different sides of the law. Where it differs, is how it portrays the fact that even when they DO start out on the same side of the equation, there is no guarantee that things will always be that way. The Korean war in Taekgukgi is a fluid landscape, with no clear borders on good or evil. Everything is limned in shades of grey, with the soldiers not even really understanding why they're fighting, and the horrible consequences of the fighting is evident everywhere we look.

One thing that simply blew me away (heheh) were the battle scenes. It's as if director Je-gyu Kang (Shiri) decided to pull out all the stops and come up with something that definitely rivals Hollywood's best productions. There is nothing beautiful about war, according to Kang. Death is plentiful, and oftentimes fast and brutal. Limbs get severed, brains scatter, and explosions rock the battlefield without respite. The camera work is rock on, never flinching (or taking the safe way out) by cutting away when someone gets killed or mangled, and are none of those jittery, MTV-esque jump cuts we're so familiar with (yes Tony Scott, I'm talking about you). You will be immersed in the war when you watch this.

The actors perform commendably well, which is more than I can say for other similar efforts where the love theme is thrown in (Pearl Harbor), bringing the emotional toll of the war to us very clearly. I can't say I'm very familiar with the actors (since I hardly watch Korean serials/movies) but in a sense it helps, because we can't peg them into a particular role.

Taekgukgi is not without its flaws. Some reviewers have commented that it's a bit too melodramatic, and that it tends to focus on the filial theme a bit too much. For me, I have to say that for it's an Asian thing, really. The film was made for an Asian audience with its values in mind, and it does show. I'm willing to overlook these minor quibbles because at the end of the day Taekgukgi is good entertainment, and it does so without making us hang up our thinking caps.

Oh by the way, if you have a decent sound system, you'll want to pick the DVD up. It's one of those discs you'll want to show your friends when you demo your setup. Seriously.

Ash.ox gives Taekgukgi a 4 out of 5