MovieChat Forums > Taegukgi hwinallimyeo (2004) Discussion > not as good as I expected spoilers

not as good as I expected spoilers

posted 13 years ago by ib011f9545i
1 reply | jump to latest

I had heard good things about this film and was happy to pick it up for £1.
Half way through watching it (someone will say I should wait to the end to comment)I am not much impressed.
The action is constant and very violent but the plot is flawed,one brother is a sort of John Wayne hero.
He kills so many of the enemy and his unit looks well equipped and organised but historically this is wrong.
South Korea was nearly totally defeated by the north.
The Southern army was not very big or well trained,even the Americans were not ready for the war never mind the South Koreans.
Of course South Korea built itself up to where it is today since 1950 but the film does not show how underdeveloped the country was at the time it was set.

[–] tvandfilmbuff 11 years ago

I expected more also. Just on the heels of watching The Man From Nowhere and Madeo, I generally sought this out for more of Bin Won's acting. He's been phenomenal. And he was again in this movie. Too bad his character was such a whiney brat to his brother through most of the movie. "Everybody's dead because of you".... "You killed Young-Shin|! "How can you do that, he's like a brother to us?!" "You should be thinking of mom, and Young-Shin".... even after death, still screaming at his brother "You didn't keep your promise! Where's your promise!" Okay, other people are getting misty eyed by now. I, who normally will weep like a baby over a movie's emotional scenes, was checking the DVD counter to see how much longer now...

Other trouble I had with it: bad CGI, and so many overly cliched scenes, lack of character development outside of the two brothers (the movie was nearly 2.5 hours, I could handle a little more time for some extra people to care about) And then there's the editing. I wanted it over by about the Inchon Landings scene. Unfortunately, that meant there were still nearly 3 years left to the war, and that the film was nowhere near being over.

I almost always finish what I start, but it was a struggle with this movie. Because the acting was good, but some really poor writing, editing and directing, I rated it a 6/10, and I think I was kind.

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