R | 2h 20m | Action, Drama, War | 2004
Having seen the American perspective of the Korean War in “The Steel Helmet” (which was the first movie made about the conflict), I thought it would be interesting to see it through a South Korean lens. So I chose director Je-kyu Kang’s film “Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War,” since it was one of the highest-grossing Korean movies when it debuted, although it has slid in the rankings with the explosion of South Korean cinema in the last 20 years.
The film begins in 2003 in South Korea. An army excavation team is digging up and recovering the remains of soldiers who had perished during the Korean War. The team notifies an older South Korean army veteran named Jin-seok Lee (the older Jin-seok played by Min-ho Jang) that they’ve come across some remains that are supposedly his, which confuses him and his granddaughter (Yun-hie Jo).
Jin-seok asks the team if the remains may instead belong to his older brother Jin-tae Lee, but they assure him that they belong to Jin-seok. They apologize for disturbing Jin-seok, and explain that the remains are probably of someone who has the same name.
Jin-seok decides to have his granddaughter drive him to the excavation site to identify the remains, but she warns him that he may be too ill to travel. But Jin-seok is determined to make the trip. As the granddaughter goes to start the car, Jin-seok opens a beautiful leather box, withdraws a pair of shoes from inside, and caresses them longingly as his mind drifts back in time.
Flashback to the historic center of Seoul, the Jongno District in 1950. Older brother Jin-tae Lee (Jang Dong-Gun) runs a street shoeshine business and has ambitions to become both a shoemaker and send his younger brother Jin-seok (the younger version played by actor Won Bin) off to college. Jin-tae also plans to marry his lovely fiancée, Young-shin Kim (Eun-ju Lee). Although the father of the brothers has passed on, the Lees are a relatively happy family that is tight-knit and loving.
One day, Jin-seok visits Jin-tae’s shoeshine stall with some alarming news—North Korean forces have invaded South Korea, which kicks off the Korean War. Since Jin-tae has filled the fatherly role of the Lee family, he has everyone pack up their belongings, as they plan to join the refugee caravans that are fleeing Seoul.
While Jin-tae is away on an errand, some military trucks pull up near Jin-seok, Young-shin, and the boy’s mute mother (Yeong-ran Lee). Soldiers disembark and tell the gathering crowd that all males between the ages of 18 and 30 must step forward. When the soldiers discover that Jin-seok is at the prime fighting age of 18, they begin to take him away. In a heart-wrenching scene, as Jin-seok is carted off, his mother tries to disrupt their plans by futilely wrenching on her son’s arm, but she’s eventually blocked by a pair of soldiers. Thus forcefully conscripted, Jin-seok is placed on a train that is heading off to a South Korean military base.
When Jin-tae returns, the ladies tell him that his younger brother has been conscripted. Jin-tae boards the train to look for Jin-seok and, when he locates him, tries to depart the train with him. But the soldiers prevent him from doing so, and as a consequence of his fight with them, ends up being conscripted as well, even though as they find out later, only one young man from any South Korean family is legally supposed to be drafted.
Jin-tae makes it his single-minded purpose to protect the more delicate and sensitive Jin-seok. Jin-tae is given a challenge by his commander—if he can win a specific South Korean medal, the army will send his younger brother back home.
Initially, the South Korean Army is pushed back by the communist forces and is on the brink of being pushed out to sea. However, during these dark days, acts of courage and valor (and somewhat borne out of sheer desperation) cause the South Korean Army to rally and begin pushing their foes back until they’re all the way back in Pyongyang, the harsh capital of North Korea. Help from the arriving United Nations (U.N.), American, and British forces also contribute to the pushback.
During the Battle of Pyongyang, Jin-tae truly embraces his inner warrior and plays a large role in routing the North Korean forces that had been entrenched in the capital. But the more battle-hardened Jin-tae gets, the more Jin-seok realizes his older brother is losing his humanity. To make matters worse, all of the ground that South Korean and Western forces gained is overrun once the Chinese join the war on the North Korean side.
One of the main attractions of this film is the realistic battle scenes, and they are quite impressive, if a tad grotesque in places. This is definitely not a movie for the squeamish. However, these scenes are well-constructed and bear a resemblance to the equally gritty ones depicted in 1998’s war epic, “Saving Private Ryan,” with lots of loud explosions, blood splatters, and the staccato of bullets flying all over the place. I had thought “The Steel Helmet” was gritty and realistic, but this film is on a whole different level.
However, beneath all of the gore and fighting is a tender story of brotherly love, self-sacrifice, loyalty, and, ultimately, compassion.
“Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War” can also give a broader view of the history of Korea. It inspired me to learn more about its complex history, and I’m sure it will make others curious after watching such an outstanding movie.
