Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War
South Korea
Collector’s Edition VCD
Also known as Taegukgi (International), Brotherhood (UK).
The Players
Jang Dong-gun as Lee Jin-tae
Won Bin as Lee Jin-seok
Lee Eun-ju as Kim Young-shin
Directed by Kang Jegyu
The Story
The film begins in present times, with an excavation on a Korean War battle site for artifacts. Some artifacts that the archeologists find lead them to contact Lee Jin-seok to ask some questions. Lee Jin-seok is an old man, pruning the roses in his garden when he gets a phone call. The film flashes back more than fifty years.
On June 25, 1950 the North Korean Army stormed across the DMZ on the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea, starting the Korean War. Lee Jin-tae and Jin-seok were brothers, leading a happy life in Seoul. Jin-tae was a hardworking shoe-shiner engaged to Kim Young-shin, who worked a noodle stand with Jin-tae and Jin-seok’s mother. Jin-seok was a college student, paying his tuition with the combined support of his family. The family’s life was interrupted by the start of the war, and as the North Koreans advanced closer and closer to Seoul, the entire city had no choice but to flee as refugees.
Somewhere in the confusion of fleeing, Jin-seok was drafted into the South Korean Army. When Jin-tae went to go retrieve Jin-seok, he was drafted as well. As the train with the draftees took off, the Lee brothers were able to exchange a few words of farewell with their mother and Young-shin.
The film cuts to the front lines, near the Nak-dong river. The Lee brothers were assigned to their squadron, and after everyone met each other, the enemy surprised them to a brutal artillery attack in which many people were killed in explosions, or wounded by shrapnel. This brutal awakening to the horrors of combat caused Jin-seok to have a bad asthma attack. The Lee brothers survived their first day on the front lines, and the following morning Jin-tae requested to his commanding officer that Jin-seok be medically discharged. The commanding officer was willing to accommodate Jin-tae, but only if Jin-tae was willing to accommodate the South Korean Army first. Their secret deal was that Jin-seok would be sent home if Jin-tae earned a combat heroism medal.
Throughout the film Jin-seok grows distant from his brother, wondering why he always goes on suicidal missions. He mistakes his brother’s sacrifices as a quest for glory, and doesn’t find out the truth until… See Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War to find out more.
Film Review
Tae Guk Gi is undoubtedly one of the best war films and dramas ever made, and it has become one of my top favorite movies, ranking up there with All Quiet on the Western Front and the Star Wars saga. The acting is excellent, and the characters’ performances moves me. Some may thinks that at some points the actors overact, but in my opinion they hit it right on the spot.
What impresses me is that this film is full of good characters. No matter how large or small a role is in this film, every character uses their time to be a character. For example, the first scene at the Nak-dong river the Lee brothers are introduced the other soldiers in their squadron. Each man has his own background and personality. There is Yong-man, a family man; Uncle Yang, the elder of the squadron and a self-proclaimed prophet; Sgt. Lee, the staunch anticommunist; Tae-soo, an escaped North Korean fighting for the South; Seung-chul, a student who enlisted to fight the communists; PFC Jo, a quiet man with a bitter outlook on life; Yong-goo, who keeps to himself; the radio operator nicknamed “Radio Man”; and Kim Cheol-soo, nicknamed “Ban.”
Another field Tae Guk Gi deserves credit for is historical accuracy. Though the Lee brothers and those around them are fictional characters, the events and battles seen in the film really did happen. As seen in the film, most of the South Korean positions at the Nak-dong river fell but a few, and the South Korean Army retook the Nak-dong region and pushed back the North Koreans. The film also shows the fall of Pyongyang (the North Korean capital) and the Chinese offensive at the Yalu River. The film shows both trench warfare, like the scenes in the Nak-dong region and the 38th parallel, and it shows urban warfare in Pyongyang and several northern villages.
The combat scenes are very violent and very realistic. Throughout the movie hundreds upon hundreds of people are killed in combat, and each battle is very bloody. The visual effects are stunning. The explosions seem to be real, and the use of blood and film gore is top-notch. The use of sound effects and sound editing is good as well, and each explosion has a deep pitch that makes it seem very powerful. The violence in this movie is definitely comparable to Saving Private Ryan. The camera angles and shakiness help add to the confusion of combat. These scenes show exactly how much of a gamble living and dying is in war.
Tae Guk Gi also deserves credit for the attention to detail. The North and South Korean uniforms are accurate to the tee, as are the American and Soviet tanks seen in the Pyongyang scenes. One thing I noticed in the Pyongyang scenes was propaganda banners everywhere, and propaganda being heard on loudspeakers, an frequent occurrence during the war, and which goes on in North Korea to this day. I also noticed a briefly seen mural on a brick wall with the faces of Josef Stalin and other communist leaders, which is accurate. It was in later years that North Korean murals would be almost exclusively be of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
There are also propaganda banners seen in the North Korean villages. Another detail that is visually stunning can be seen when the Chinese storm across the Yalu River. Almost all of them are carrying some sort of flag or banner which makes them look more threatening as they charge into North Korea yelling their battle cries.
Tae Guk Gi also shows the brutality that civilians suffered from both sides during the war. In one North Korean village, the South Korean Army discovers that all the civilians in the village have been slaughtered by the North Korean Army—their own army slaughtered them! When the Southerners begin to pick the bodies up, they start exploding; they were booby trapped for the South Koreans. Later in the movie, civilians in Seoul are rounded up by the South Korean government and executed for being suspected communists, and buried in mass graves.
Technical Review
The version of Tae Guk Gi that I own is the Collector’s Edition on VCD (For an explanation of what a VCD is, see the review of the Star Wars Trilogy on VCD). The film is 150 minutes long, spread on three discs.
It’s in widescreen, and subtitled in Chinese and English. Like all VCD’s with dual subtitles, the subtitles appear in both languages at the same time. That’s perfectly fine with me because when I read the English subtitles, my eyes don’t notice the Chinese subtitles.
The Collector’s Edition comes in a special cover box, and contains the movie, a hardcover journal to write in, and a set of postcards with promotional photos. I found it in Chinatown during my trip to San Francisco. Though I’m a man who is a friend to VCD’s, I recommend owning the DVD.
Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War was released in the US by Samuel Goldwyn films and is available to own on a 2-disc DVD. The second disc is packed with special features on the making of the movie. It’s rated R in the U.S.
Tae Guk Gi is definitely a film I recommend owning.
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