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Taegukgi
Tae Guk Gi - The Brotherhood of War (buy from Amazon)
Type: Drama, South Korea 2004
Director: Je-gyu Kang
My rating: 4
Key actors/actresses:
Dong-Kun Jang .... Jin-tae
Bin Won .... Jin-seok
Eun-ju Lee .... Young-shin
Posted by Dominic
Story:
Two brothers happily living in a small city with their mother. The elder brother, Jin-Tae repairs shoes for a living to support the family and the younger brother Jin-seok to study. Jin-tae has planned to married Young-shin soon. The Korean civil war broke out on 25 June 1950, the two brothers have been unwillingly drafted to fight in the army. Jin-tae sworn to protect his younger brother, he intended to fight hard and obtain the Medal of honour in order to secure Jin-seok's early return to home. But Jin-tae did not have the understanding of Jin-seok and the war has turned Jin-tae's world upside down...
My review:
This is Korean's answer to USA's saving private ryan. The war scenes are intense and well filmed.
The brotherly love during war time creates very strong bonding and can change people's value and perception. It shows how the war can make people crazy. The Korean war is a very sad tragedy in Korean history where people of the same race are fighting and killing each other. It has been used as countless storyline in Korean movies.
Overall, Taegukgi is well filmed and well acted. Very entertaining. Though I think the mis-understanding between the brothers was a bit far-stretched.