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Directed by: Kang Je Gyu Starring: Jang Dong Geon, Won Bin Taegukgi (South Korea's word for their flag) was released in South Korea in February 2004, and meeting everyone's expectation became the most watched movie of all time there. Stateside, Taegukgi has topped the $1M box office mark in the US and has made over $70M worldwide, quite a feat for a movie which is playing in less than fifty theaters Stateside. It is South Korea's entry for Best Foreign Film at next year's Oscars. The (I believe fictional) story revolves around brothers Jin Sook and Jin Tae, who are taken from their mother and the later's fiancé when they are drafted in 1950 after the poo poo hits the fan. After being granted permission to serve alongside his brother, the elder brother Jin Tae desperately seeks a way to get his brother out of the war. Learning that a similar instance had previously led to a son being sent home after his father "paid his price to the nation," Jin Tae becomes determined to do whatever it takes to get his brother out. The parallels between Taegukgi and Saving Private Ryan are numerous, but are particularly apparent in the camera work, with blood splatters on the camera and the variation of film speed during the combat scenes. Combined with the sheer quality of the film in general one could almost believe that it was made by Spelberg himself. In that regard Taegukgi comes off looking even more impressive, considering it was filmed for $12.5M compared to Ryan's $65M. One technical issue for those thinking of buying the DVD: the movie is split like the LOTR extended editions, as the film runs about 150 minutes. While my near-obsession with Korean cinema may be clouding my judgment somewhat, I feel confident in stating that Taegukgi is the best movie I've watched in a long, long time. Highly recommended. RATING: 4.5 PROS: Moviemaking similar to Saving Private Ryan while going far further in impressing the tradgedies of war CONS: Extremely viceral (more than Ryan), somewhat implausible towards the end ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_Taegukgi.php
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Oct 24, 2004 07:30
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 09:36 |
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I did not think Taegukigi was a very good movie. Why? Well first off, I couldn't escape the similarities to every World War II/Korean War era movie ever made. I got the feeling that the director's saw a few American war movies, loved them, than thought "Dude, we've got to make one of these." It may be because of the general mold of war movies, but plenty of war-centric movies (Thin Red Line, Apocolypse Now) have gone outside the formula and had more diverse plots than "WAR SUCKS LOLZ." Also, this was another tragic case of a movie trying, and failing, to be many genres at the same time. War movie, Social Activism movie, Brotherly Love movie, Romance-in-Adversity movie, and barely-Psychological movie (when the brother at the end goes crazy and he has to be convinced by his other brother, while fighting, that they are, indeed, brothers). These conflicting themes seemed to clash with eachother and obscure the main storyline, rather than amplify it. The suspense element introduced at the beginning of "Which brother died?" was a good compliment, especially since it was left in the back of the audience's mind and not harped on. But other than that, the movie clashed with itself. All in all, some of the fight scenes were cool, especially the North vs. South super-clashes. But since the "War is Hell" theme was ever-present in this movie, I doubt this was the director's original intent, and this movie seems to fail in what it set out to do... whatever it might be. Also, some parts of the movie needed NWS tags. Way too gory for a brotherly-love-in-war backdrop. 2/5 for me.
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Oct 25, 2004 11:13
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This isn't a review, but a comment on movie grosses. Movies are tracked per engagement (long movies causing fewer engagements and less $ which is why theaters hate them). The following data is from Variety. (From a much larger collection of data) TAE GUK GI: BROTHERHOOD OF WAR (UNITED STATES HISTORY) Date, # engagements, avg per engagement, total, running total 9/3-9/9/2004 29 $15,057 $436,640 $436,640 9/10-9/16/2004 31 $7,588 $235,229 $671,869 Contrast this with I Heart Huckabees 10/1-10/7/2004 4 $102,545 $410,181 $410,181 10/8-10/14/2004 44 $28,998 $1,275,932 $1,686,113 Or Motorcyle Diaries 9/24-9/30/2004 3 $85,268 $255,805 $255,805 10/1-10/7/2004 67 $22,796 $1,527,306 $1,783,111 Or be really wacky and look at Shark Tale 10/1-10/7/2004 4,016 $13,949 $56,019,976 $56,019,976 10/8-10/14/2004 4,070 $10,000 $40,698,935 $96,718,91 I.e., it didn't do that well. Boutique movies usually have very high per screen averages because they are hopefully targeted well. I doubt it was playing in South Central megaplexes. A screen average of $7K the second week is a pretty big drop-off, which is why it disappeared--it wasn't profitable to keep it.
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Oct 25, 2004 20:55
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Just watched this movie and holy gently caress it kicked rear end. I don't really have much to say because I suck at reviews, but the ending almost had me in tears. 5
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Feb 8, 2005 05:29
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I've seen this half a dozen times and am completely confident calling it not only my favourite movie of 2004, but also the best war movie I've seen. Yes, better than Saving Private Ryan and Apocalypse Now. To the second poster: you must not watch a lot of korean, or even asian cinema in general. Genre-crossing is done a LOT over there, but this isn't one of them. The genres you listed aren't even genres but themes -- and any movie with only one theme, well, sucks. This was a war drama, not a psychological-war-in adversity-romantic-drama. To the third poster: I don't think anyone expected it to do well in american theatres, let alone get SHOWN in american theatres. In years to come this will become another asian classic along the lines of Kurosawa and Suzuki's samurai films. I was lucky enough to see this in theatres and loved it. Now I own the DVD and love that too. PROS: Brutally realistic portrayal of war and its horrors, very strong performances by all main actors, very engaging (this is not a movie you go to the bathroom during), subtitles are very well done CONS: Very upsetting. PS: I've cried at the ending almost everytime I've watched this. 5.5/5
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Feb 8, 2005 09:21
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I enjoyed this film. I recommend that people see it if they're interested in a dramatic story of brothers whose relationship is traumatized by the horrors of war set against a realistic and detailed backdrop of the er, "UN Police Action in Korea"  Visually and viscerally, you can expect lots of guns and military hardware, substantial war talk, and plenty of gore. 4.5+.
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Mar 28, 2005 18:28
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Just saw it. One of the best war movies I have ever seen, hands down. Really emotional as well; it truly shows war at its shittiest. The ending was real sad 
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Apr 24, 2005 08:23
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i really did not enjoy this movie very much; i put it on the same level as i do "the patriot" and "windtalkers". it was about as realistic, melodramatic, and just as retarded as those two movies. it felt horribly cheesey and the two bit orchestral score didn't help any. all three of those movies are incredibly similar and i'm sure had taeguki been an american film then anyone who saw it would realize this and group them together. people complain about how american movies have yankees firing from the hip and taking down germans from 500 yards; this movie has a loving shoemaker single-handedly wiping out a whole NK platoon without missing once the first time he saw combat. it doesn't make any sense; does loving his brother give the hero-guy magical crack-shot powers? the movie made no effort to explain the guy's super-ramboness. starscream i have no respsect for your opinion anymore: 1/5 Paperfan fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Apr 26, 2005 |
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Apr 26, 2005 21:15
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I just watched this last night. It was an above average war film. Many say it's better than Private Ryan. I say, no way. The best parts of Brotherhood were the battles. I don't know why, but I really didn't think the whole family thing carried the movie like it was expected to. Also, it would have been much better if the brother didn't switch sides, and they would have just fought it out for SK and prevailed, leaving themselves in the same situation of one living, one dying. 3.5/5
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Apr 29, 2005 02:04
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I watched this a couple weeks ago and it was one of the best and most upsetting movies I've seen. Better than Private Ryan. It's good to have some idea of how Korean culture works before you watch, or things might seem a little strange and unbelievable. quote:people complain about how american movies have yankees firing from the hip and taking down germans from 500 yards; this movie has a loving shoemaker single-handedly wiping out a whole NK platoon without missing once the first time he saw combat.
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Jul 8, 2005 08:16
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This movie depcited Cinematic Genius and I daresay that next to some old classics may be the best War Movie ever. 5/5
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Jul 8, 2005 23:32
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Just saw it and I must say that I was very impressed. Sometimes the acting felt a bit over-dramatic, but the movie overall was great. I didn't like the ending, but I already knew that this would only end in tragedy. A great war movie that I feel is very compelling due to the brother aspect of it. 5/5
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Dec 3, 2005 00:08
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Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War is easily my favorite war movie. It borrows a lot from classics like Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket, and many others. But it does it the best, and keeps the characters as the central focus. Its more about how the Korean war effected the people, and no battle scenes are thrown in for their own sake. Its keeps things personal, instead of being a violent history recap. Brilliant film, everyone should check it out. 5.5/5
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Dec 3, 2005 09:47
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I bought it. No way can you rent something like that. It had great production values, and overall I liked it (sucker for war movies), and it was enjoyable to see a Korean War period piece done from the perspective of the south, but the third act was over the top. In the movie, they make it plain in Korean culture, a male heir was to be preserved to keep the family line. Hence two brothers being drafted, and in the same unit was unusual, and a dramtic plot point. It's too bad a hollywood cliche, like mistakenly believing a loved one was killed, in this case his younger brother, and going batshiat insane over it was the basis for the conclusion. Shoktru fucked around with this message at 11:50 on Dec 9, 2005 |
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Dec 8, 2005 21:14
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orinth posted:Just watched this movie and holy gently caress it kicked rear end. I don't really have much to say because I suck at reviews, but the ending almost had me in tears. I'm with you - crap at comprehensive reviews, but this movie kicks yankee rear end, I was in absolute tears for the whole of the last segment of the movie.... BTW the soundtrack is excellent too. An easy 5 for me.
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Dec 25, 2005 19:45
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Delivered everything it promised and should of. I was pretty much on the edge of my seat throughout the film, every battle scene was loud and intense. For me the more detailed gore did set it apart from American war films too. Also the settings were really nice, you had small villages, snow coated landscapes, smashed up cities and so on. The ending was really sad, and it didn't feel like a cheesy ending either. 5.5/5
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Jan 29, 2006 03:54
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I'm also not good at long reviews, so I'll just hit what I haven't seen in other reviews. The main thing about this movie was how it gave me an understanding of the Korean war that I didn't really have before. Yeah, yeah "All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers"--besides the obvious real brothers fighting each other, just seeing one people turn on each other and slaughter their fellows in an orgy of hate and suspicion was..well, disturbing is too vague, but you get the idea. And the craziest thing about it was that by the time they decided to start simply mowing down the surrenduring enemy instead of taking them prisoner, I was right there with them. I hated the North Koreans every bit as much as they did for the poo poo they'd done in the first half of the movie (well, some knowledge of events since then helped too). Then of course they capture one of their friends conscripted in the North Korean army and everything goes gray, plus the one brother's girlfriend gets shot by the South on suspicion of being a commie sympathizer and everything goes to poo poo and I didn't know what to think. I guess that's pretty cliche "whoa I hated those guys but they're still human and we're not so great ourselves" but the way it really made me viscerally hate and then cut me off at the knees...it really got to me. Also the production values were spectacular, especially for the budget (I can't believe Spielberg spent so much more on SPR). Bonus points for spotting Choi Min-Sik (Oh Dae-su from Oldboy, the main villain from Shiri, and a badass actor in general) playing the North Korean colonel they capture in Pyongyang Yeah, some of the emotional poo poo is a bit overdone, but you gotta expect that in asian films. Look at The Killer, for goodness sake. overall: 5/5 rockopete fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Oct 12, 2007 |
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Oct 12, 2007 19:57
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 09:36 |
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Definitely one of the best war movies. But as others have pointed out, I could have done without a lot of the Hollywood cliches. I know it's Asian cinema, whatever. The whole brother switching sides wasn't needed at all. Then going on a seemingly invincible rampage through the middle of many battles Overall a great movie that shows the real hardships of war. 4/5
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Oct 15, 2007 16:01
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