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This film is absolutely fantastic. It resembles the two best war films of all time: Saving Private Ryan and the HBO series Band of Brothers. Tae Guk Gi is a cinematic marvel. With a background of numerous awards in the Sundance Film Festival, this movie hit the shelves and I couldn't resist picking it up. It opens with a strong resemblance to Letters from Iwojima by beginning in the present and then reflecting on the past, which is what the movie is. The plot, a shoemaker and his younger brother having been drafted into the South Korean militia soon find themselves on the front line. The older of the brothers, Jin-tae, strikes up a deal with the commander of his battalion that they send home his younger brother, Jin-seok, if he demonstrates exemplory effort for the cause. His whole goal is to get his brother as far away from the fighting as possible. His motivation is that if one should die, then at least one must live. But soon after the movie kicks into gear, Jin-tae's main goals become warped as he soon takes pride in what he does. He now enjoys the battle scene and takes on high risk missions, not for the medal he requires to send his brother home, but for sheer glory and promotions that follow his actions. Watching this movie, we see well rounded characters and become much attached to them as we see them advance through the Korean War. After a while, aid from the U.S. is provided and we see significant progress in the overall goal of accomplishing Jin-tae's objective of getting his brother home safe. However, his methods by which he attempts to achieve the goal become disastrous to himself and everyone he cares about. It isn't until the end of the movie that we can see how pure his true desires of sending Jin-seok home were. This film is subbed, not dubbed. There are English translations in text at the bottom of the screen. By not dubbing English over the Korean dialogue, this movie maintains its true purpose as a Korean film. For a two and a half hour movie, you have to be motivated to sit down and read this. Cinematic brilliance was created and presented to us through Sundance. Like no film has done before, "Tae Guk Gi is a searing look at the Korean War" through which the American people can finally see. This isn't a pretty battle, nor is it glorious. TAE GUK GI tells the war as it was, and how it affected real people at the time. This shouldn't have only gone up for Sundance. With a movie as good as this, an Oscar Nomination would seem to have been a good move compared to what else is out there in the foreign film department nowadays. If you see this on the shelf, pick it up and sit down for one heck of a movie that, I can guarantee, will blow you away. Once you've seen this, it instantly becomes a timeless classic.
Posted by AcesWild
