“Tae Guk Gi” – The Brotherhood of War – A Solid War Epic
“Tae Guk Gi” (2004) is a sweeping war epic, impressively written, devastatingly photographed and designed, and captivatingly told. It’s old-fashioned mainstream filmmaking, overtly melodramatic and sappy, but deeply moving, disturbing, and breathtaking at the same time.
Set in 1950 Korea, it tells the story of two brothers who are forcefully drafted to fight in the Korean war. When Lee jin-Seouk is taken by South Korean forces to serve, the protective elder brother Lee jin-Tae follows an unsuccessful attempt to bring him back by asking to serve alongside his inexperienced sibling, all in an effort to sheild him. As war thickens and blood and guts spill from all directions, jin-Tae realizes that he needs to find a way to get his brother out of the battlefield, and back home to their mother. He risks his life, volunteering for the riskiest of missions, in an effort to impress the superiors and create a position to ask for his brother to be sent home in return for his efforts.
The beauty of “Tae Guk Gi” lies in the fact that throughout the 2.5 hour duration of the film, the script remains loyal to the crux of its story – the relationship between the two brothers. While the level of detail and production values in recreating the scale and violence of the Korean war is on par with the likes of films like “Saving Private Ryan” if not better, the war and it’s politics are cleverly used to enhance character development instead of being brought to the forefront.
Performances by the lead pair Dong-Kun Jan and Bin Won are superb, albeit within a very mainstream style. The dialogue borders on getting preachy more than once, but minor drawbacks in a movie that offers so much more can be rightfully forgiven. Director Je-gyu Kang (”Swiri”), often referred to as the Spielberg of the east, attempts to strike a healthy balance in the portrayal of war, effectively showing that violence does not discriminate across nationality and political allegiance as it looks to turn human beings into monsters.
Claustrophobically photographed and smartly cut with spellbinding war scenes and violence, “Tae Guk Gi” is definitely not for those who solely patronize subtle cinema. This is a very mainstream film that serves its stuff right in your face, and is unapologetic about it. That’s perhaps why it works. On a personal note, despite it’s sappiness, it ranks among some of the most enthralling and moving war films I have ever seen.
Tags: Cinematography, Direction, Editing, Korean, Production
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Looks like nice one.
@Vijay…btw whats the meaning of the title of the film!!
From what I have read, the phrase “TaekGukGi” is used to refer to the South Korean flag. Kind of the way we call our flag “Tiranga”. I think the term also means Brotherhood.
For those who do take up my recommendation and watch this film, I would also suggest watching Chan Wook Park’s “Joint Security Area”. I personally rate it as his best film. It’s very different in style and form from his revenge trilogy. It’s not a huge epic film. It’s a simple one set in an area between North and South Korea, in a zone that is jointly controlled by both countries’ armed forces, moderated by the Swiss army. It’s about a group of North & South Korean soldiers secretly befriending each other. Brilliant film, and the last shot of the film is a still image. It has got to be the simplest yet most moving closing shot I have ever seen in cinema.