Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Lately, we’ve been getting a lot of good cinema out of Korea, and we’ve got a lot more readers from that region writing in to tell us to keep our eyes open for films now. As a result, we get great reports like this one:
Hi Harry,
I just saw Tae Gukki. Not sure if anyone sent a report in yet as it’s been on release here for about a week now.
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Tae Gukki staring Dong-gun Jang and Bin Won is nothing short of a masterpiece. Jae-kyu Kang’s two and a half hour epic is an unbelievably and unflinchingly brutal look at how war destroys, both body and soul, every thing it touches. I'll start out with a few hooks to let you know where this report is coming from.
Tae Gukki makes 'Saving private Ryan' look like 'Windtalkers'.
Tae Gukki does for 13 million dollars (US) what would have cost Hollywood at least 100 million, and then some.
Tae Gukki has more gore than the back seat of Vincent Vega’s Cadillac.
Tae Gukki is such good drama that all the battles (and dear lord there are many) could be edited out and it would still make a satisfying movie.
Most of you know the title of the film by now. Tae Gukki is the name of the South Korean flag. It refers specifically to the ‘Yin/Yang’ symbol at its center and symbolizes North and South Korea.
The film is the largest Korean movie to date in terms of both cast and cost. You shouldn't be caught by surprise though as Harry's been like some mad volcanologist running around with wild tales of tremors from the East as he waxes lyrical about Korean fliks such as 'Old boy'. I don't know how many have heeded his warnings and prepared for the inevitable eruption by watching a few to help tune in to the Korean style but it's too late now cause Mount Korea has blown her top and the lava's on its way. Prepare to be shell shocked, culture shocked and ‘just plain’ shocked as you feast your eyes and ears on what just might be the greatest war movie ever made.
Kimchiwood has arrived.
Tae Gukki opens on the bustling peacetime streets of Jong-no, an entertainment and shopping district here in Seoul. This was a special joy to those of us watching in the only place in Seoul to screen English subtitled Korean films as the cinema was in that exact same location; Jong-no 54 years later.
The film tells the story of two brothers who are dragged into what is often called in America ‘The forgotten war’. In an eerie premonition of Vietnam the commies and the Yanks are playing chess with Asian pawns. It’s a war by proxy but for the two brothers its suddenly all too up close and personal as they are shang-hai’d into fighting for a cause they know nor care nothing about.
The younger brother played by handsome newcomer ‘Bin Won’ is the only educated member of the dirt poor Seoul family and carries on his eighteen year old shoulders the hopes and dreams of the entire clan. Big brother who finances his younger brothers education by shining shoes all day is played by ‘Dong-Gun Jang’ and is strongly reminiscent of ‘Chow Yun Fat’ with his baby faced good looks.
To cut a long review short. The South regime want to crush the North regime so drag every able bodied male kicking and screaming to the recruiting office; in this case a ready to depart train. Little brother gets the nod and big brother boards the train in an effort to get him off and back to school. Big brother gets his face smashed in by the recruiting officer and told he’s now a new recruit too.
The rest of the movie pretty much follows the two as big brother tries to protect and make sure his younger sibling gets home in one piece. He is in fact informed that if he wins the medal of honor he can claim the right to have his brother relieved of duty and sent home to take care of his mute mother so he volunteers for every suicidal mission on offer.
It may sound like a simple premise and on the surface it is despite the abso-freakin-lutly massive, blood soaked battles. Believe me, the director must have been quite the outdoorsman, hardly a moment is spent in the command bunkers before shells come raining down forcing the scene back out into the carnage(Apparently two tons of small arms ammunition was fired in recreating the battles.) The big shots mulling around the giant monopoly boards don’t get much screen time in this film. That’s not to say that the grunts are the hero’s. In this movie there are no hero’s; not in the military sense anyway.
In fact considering how politically charged the scenario of Tae Gukki is Jae-kyu Kang’s movie is decidedly un-political. It makes no judgment on either side. He is just uninterested in either preaching or pandering. Almost everyone in this film is a victim of circumstance and the only thing that matters is family, friends and one’s own ayass.
The love the brothers have for one another is wonderfully evident and is the heart and soul of the film but the flesh, in its ripped, punctured, gashed, burned, flayed and gutted form, is made up of mostly action. Whether it’s a tight squad of twenty or so getting cut to pieces or the re-creation of the three million strong Chinese invasion force pouring over the hills into Korea from the north the action and carnage is un-relenting and on a truly massive scale.
The special effects are also fantastic, especially bearing in mind the 13 million dollar price tag. They are so good in fact that you rarely think about them.
That’s the outer surface of the movie. Peel it back a layer and you’ll find a deep philosophical study of Korean family structure and relationships. Big brother is unselfish to the point of being selfish if that makes any sense. At all costs he wants his younger brother to survive and make it home. Younger brother appreciates this from a brother who has always sacrificed and looked after him but has to endure the spiritual torture of watching his brother slowly turn into an animal in order to do what is necessary to achieve his end.
I’ll warn of a minor spoiler here but it’s not central to the actual plot. Jump ahead three paragraphs if you don’t want the heads up though.
In once scene the grunts are beyond jaded after seeing pensioners and children alike strung up by the North after taking a village. Older brother who is by now company leader due to his many victories initiates a Sparticus like fist fight between two prisoners with the loser missing five days rations. The older brother is being particularly sadistic and it is clearly superfluous to his aim of winning his brothers release through achievement. As the prisoners heart isn’t into the fist fight he periodically jumps in and kicks the crap out of one. Little brother snaps at this point and jumps in too and does a Jack Nicholson on one of them.
At this point I leaned over and asked my Korean friend why she thought he did that and she answered at first that he wanted fun but later that he wanted to prevent one from losing five days rations. My take however was that he could no longer bear to see his brother sink so low and realized that the only way to wake him up was to make him witness the soiling of his own soul.
I may be reading too much into that scene but it seemed to me to be a masterful portrayal of the sublime amidst the wretched.
Well I won’t offer any more spoilers and there are far too many interesting set pieces to mention but I hope to impress on you the depth of the film and the complexity of the relationships.
If I have any gripes I’d have to say the film felt long. Two and a half hours is nothing for me. By long I mean I was fatigued by onslaught after onslaught after onslaught and battered by tidal wave after tidal wave of high heart wrenching drama. Perhaps this is more of a self criticism as Koreans are very heartistic people and high drama, especially of the suffering kind which basically sums up their history, is their bag baby.
Another complaint is that it made me cry too often and I hate crying in front of others even if it is in the dark and even though I’m quite adept at pretending to scratch my head in a sneak attempt to wipe away the tell tale tears.
Lastly I’d have to say that every now and then the ‘style’ of Tae Gukki felt a little like a propaganda film. I emphasize style because I’m only referring to the framing and feel of certain scenes in the film and not the message or intention, especially the charge of the red flag brigade.
I have no information on the Western release plans except to say that Columbia were impressed and there is talk of it. I’m sure it will happen. I’m not sure if the style and focus will translate but I hope western audiences have grown enough to appreciate it. I’m English but still have a little chip on my shoulder about how an Art house Edinburgh cinema audience giggled when watching ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ as the main characters flew a few meters. Yet probably cooed every time anyone from Superman to Neo flew in a Western movie.
Tae Gukki is a wake up call to the world that the 45 million Koreans here in the south plan to do some serious assed entertaining over the next few years and I for one can’t wait to see what’s next.
Filmrage.
Thanks, Filmrage. I’m sure you’ve got Korean cinema fans scrambling already to figure out how they’re going to get a look at this one, our own Grande Rojo included.
"Moriarty" out.
