| A big,
bruising epic of the Korean War, Tae Guk Gi or Brotherhood
smashed box-office records when it played in South Korea in
2004, almost as though the country needed to re-live the trauma
at a 50-year distance. For the rest of the world, this movie
looks like a ground-level reckoning in a melodramatic key,
with an authentic feel for battle lines as well as home front.
It follows two brothers--one uneducated and forceful, the
other intellectual and reserved--as they are united and then
divided by the conflict. The broadly emotional story has some
of the power of tales of the American Civil War, when family
members found themselves on opposite sides of a battle. Director
Kang Je-gyu , who made the lively female-assassin hit Shiri,
takes a blunt approach to the material (including a Saving
Private Ryan-style framing device). And at 150 minutes, he
has plenty of time for head-splitting, blood-spraying combat.
This movie is meant as a punch in the stomach, and it connects.
--Robert Horton, Amazon.com
All Customer Reviews
5 out of 5 - 18 Oct 2006
I threw this film into my shopping basket without
really looking at it. When I got home I had a really good
look at it and was disappointed to discover that it was actually
in Korean. Decided to watch it anyway as there was nothing
on the tv and was absolutely glued to the screen for the duration
of the film as it was one of the best films I have seen. Blew
me away so much that I bought another couple to give to a
couple of mates. Great film.
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