Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War

A few months ago, I had not heard of this South Korean war film. I had heard of the director, who had made the well-received international hit Shiri. Then, Harry Knowles at Ain't It Cool News chose it as the Best Film of 2004, hefty praise indeed. I'm not always in agreement with Mr. Knowles on films, but he's probably seen more just this week than I ever will in a lifetime of filmgoing. And that level of commitment has got to mean something.

Then, my co-worker Ari told me it was terrific, a bruising, punishing war film in the Saving Private Ryan mode. This comparison naturally comes up all the time, mainly because director Je-gyu Kang cribs so much of his visual style from that film. Everything from the washed-out half-colorized cinematography to the sweeping score to the chaotic, impressionistic battle scenes reflects Kang's Spielbergian influences.

But it reminds me of Ryan in a few other, less than positive ways. Like that film, it's hokey and melodramatic, contrasting the gritty immediacy of the shockingly realistic battle scenes with cornpone, Hollywood formula. Like that film, it tacks on a needless framing device, remembering the war through the eyes of an aged veteran. And like that film, its far too long, aspiring to an epic scope its story cannot maintain.



But, like Saving Private Ryan, Tae Guk Gi comes alive when depicting the horrors of war. I don't know that I've ever seen an Asian film of this magnitude and scope, portraying several Korean War battles in a realistic manner on an unbelievable scale. There are sequences in which literally thousands of soldiers clash, scenes where Chinese troops swoop before the cameras in a furious display of power and grim determination.

And, also like Saving Private Ryan, the violence is immediate, shocking and we never turn away from seeing the nightmare in which these soldiers live every day. There are limbs destroyed, brains dashed out and, maybe most horribly, piles of corpses splattered by landmines. Seeing this less than a week after Very Long Engagement was like watching films made about war from two parallel universes. Both comment on the grim reality of human conflict, but while Engagement uses it as a backdrop for a story about hope and determined survival, Tae Guk Gi takes a more pessimistic tack. Its soldiers are never freed from the burdens of the battlefield. War destroys the lives of every single character in the film, thoroughly and completely.

The story involves two brothers, both of whom find themselves drafted into the South Korean Army in 1950. Quick history lesson: Until the end of WWII, Japan had ruled Korea as a colony. After the war, North Korea turned Communist and aligned with the Chinese in a kind of half-assed way. This gave them the confidence to invade the South in 1950. It was a rout at first by the North, who caught the South unprepared. In 1951, the UN entered the war, and the South regained some territory, but then in 1952, China entered the war. In 1953, the war ended with North and South Korea agreeing on the same division that exists today, at the 38th Parallel.

Okay, everybody got that? You will be responsible for this information after finishing the article, so I hope you read it carefully. Maybe go through it again.

Okay. So, these two brothers, dependable, protective older brother Jin-Tae (Jang Dong-Gun) and wimpy, immature 18 year old Jin-Seok (Won Bin, the guy in that photo above), are drafted and sent to the front lines. Jin-Tae makes the commander a bold offer - he'll take any dangerous duty, provided that his brother be sent home. The commander agrees, provided that Jin-Tae win a Medal of Honor for success in combat.

This is a pretty great idea for a war movie. We get to see all the most dangerous missions through the eyes of unbelievable badass Jin-Tae, and we come to understand the sacrifices one brother is asked to make to save his beloved sibling. It's effective stuff, and if Kang hadn't overplayed his hand, it might have worked. But he goes way too far, giving us a broken-hearted fiancee, a sickly mute mother and all manner of thinly-written, cutesy soldiers in the film only to endear themselves to the audience before dying tragically.

I get sick of manipulative movies pretty quickly, and by the two hour mark, Tae Guk Gi began to wear on me. That's about the time when the film enters full-on ludicrous mode, giving us a final act in which Jin-Tae has a crucial misunderstanding that actually leads him to defect and join the Communist Army of North Korea. It's utterly ridiculous, and completely divergent from the staunch realism of the war scenes. Kang obviously feels strongly about capturing some kind of truth about combat - his war scenes are bold, unflinching and artfully directed. I'm not sure why he didn't extend the same effort towards making the human stories feel truthful, rather than Hollywood and scripted, but he didn't. And it's really too bad.

Tae Guk Gi may be a film for the big screen, or it may have more resonance to a South Korean audience. But it's undeniably affecting and tremendously realized on the screen. I wasn't able to find at all reliable information on the Web about the budget and production of this film, but it must be one of the most expensive Asian films of our time. Fans of the genre should definitely take note, but those with weak stomachs would do best to avoid this one. It's grisly stuff.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1) Who fought in the Korean War? Why?

2) Use the phrase "tae guk gi" in a sentence.

3) How could Harry Knowles possibly choose this as the Best Film of the Year? What's wrong with that guy?

4) Do you believe those rumors about Korean people eating dogs? Why or why not? Discuss.