Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War

Credited cast:
Dong-Kun Jang .... Jin-tae
Bin Won .......... Jin-seok
Eun-ju Lee ....... Young-shin

Written and Directed by: Je-gyu Kang

Plot:

Growing up with a father long dead and a mother muted by sorrow, Jin-tae took the "Man of the House" responsibility on his shoulders, quitting school and working as a shoeshine boy just to let his smarter younger brother Jin-seok go to school. Theirs was a very close relationship, as close as any. It was said that Jin-tae is a simple shoeshine boy who loved his family (and a certain girl Young-shin) BUT MOST ESPECIALLY his brother.

It was 1950, Jin-seok has turned 18 and has bright prospects; Jin-tae is soon to wed Young-shin...and the war broke out. Both men of the family found themselves drafted and Jin-tae takes it upon himself to care for his younger brother, even to the extent of volunteering for tough assignments just so Jin-seok would sit them out and stay safe.

A major opportunity comes: He must win a Medal of Honor so he could be privileged enough to have his brother sent home. In his quest for this Medal, he becomes nothing short of a warmongerer, a flat-out ruthless soldier and, yes, a murderer. Plain and simple. He changes so much that his younger brother no longer seemed to know him.

Review

To classify this as a war film would be far too constricting. It is a dramatic film set during the 1950's war between the North and South Korea. The emotional implications of the story far outweigh the war scenes (which this film has a lot of).

Hailing from a country other than Korea, my knowledge of the two nation's history of war and strife is very limited, but one really do not need to know the entire story to fully appreciate this film. Others might also comment about the fact that the film was told from the South Korean point of view, portraying the North as 'commie bastards'. However, that is not the point of this film.

Basically, this film discusses human relationships: two nations that are practically kin, but with differing ideologies; an older brother who loves his baby brother so much that he is willing to make sacrifices for him; a mother who is faced with the prospect of losing, not one, but TWO sons - the only ones she has left in the world; a young woman who is willing to wait for the return of the man she loves; and a younger brother who had always looked up to and relied on the older brother whom he loved more than anyone else.

Set during wartime, blood and gore are a given, and this film is not lacking in that. We see various scenes of vicious killings and bloodshed, but all done in good taste. It achieves its purpose, which is to depict the harsh realities of war, especially on the human psyche.

More than the special effects, the harrowing images of a war fought between kinsmen, it is the performances that make this film leave a lasting impression.

Jang Dong Gun effectively shows the transition from a simple shoeshine boy to a ruthless soldier yet still maintaining that subtle look of a brother who loves his baby brother.

Won Bin as the innocent then disillusioned Jin-seok makes me weepy as he tries to understand this monster that used to be his brother while trying hard not to hate him.

This is all about brotherhood, and not mainly about the kind forged in the battlefront when bullets and bayonets are pressed before one. It goes deeper, much much deeper.