Tae Guk Gi: Brotherhood of War - A True Bromance

"Hey, you got a pen I can borrow?"

Ken Ø says:


Tae Guk Gi is sort of a Korean Saving Private Ryan or maybe Saving Private Ryan is an American Tae Guk Gi. Either way, both movies embed personal stories of survival within a sprawling war epic. Older brother Jin-tae risks his life repeatedly so he can convince commanders to send his younger brother Jin-seok home. It’s a pretty good war movie and you want to care about Jin-tae and Jin-seok. Problem is, the body count is so high and the tragedy of a civil war that to this day still separates North and South makes it hard to care about one or two individuals. But, despite all the carnage the filmmakers do manage to humanize the story and in one dramatic scene actually manage to create a tear-worthy moment. It’s a long way to go, but if you want a quick cry Tae Guk Gi does deliver.

Tissue rating: 2.5 out 5 tissues


MJ says:

In compiling the names of the best tearjerkers that Korean cinema has to offer, we came across Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War. Judging solely by the name, I figured this wouldn't be the typical romance-tragedies that we have come to love for their ability to break our hearts. However, it would hardly be fair to discriminate solely based on the deviation from the (read: my own) preferred subject matter. Besides, it may also offer a well-deserved manly reprieve, if you will, for the gentlemen coerced into… I mean, willingly contributing to this blog.

Having said that, I did my best to keep an open mind watching this movie and to form a personal attachment to its characters... 

In the opening scene of the movie, we learn that one of the brothers (Jin-seok), now a grandfather, continues to live in limbo because he has yet to reunite with the other since they lost each other in the war. In response to an inquiry from an excavation team unearthing the remains of dead soldiers from the Korean War, he enlists the aid of his doting granddaughter to drive over to the site. In a moment of solitude, he weeps over a handsome pair of leather shoes, and we know this is going to be part of the emotional payoff in the end. 

In the closing scene, we see Jin-seok finally reunite with his older brother, Jin-tae, or rather, what's left of him. Next to his charred remains, Jin-seok finds the pen that Jin-tae had given him as a gift, and in this way Jin-tae fulfills the poetically tragic promise of returning it to him the next time they meet. This, along with a flashback explaining the sentimental value of the shoes, was enough to coax a respectable amount of tears from my eyes.

My dissatisfaction with the movie, however, lies in the mind-blowing (literally, brains being obliterated to bits by explosives), gut-wrenching and the nearly non-stop carnage that filled the bulk of the two hours of this film. The allure of war films eludes me -- I hate violence and war, whether real, imaginary, or a depiction of a real or imaginary event. (The few exceptions are Kill Bill-esque type of movies where a righteous woman is doling out a well-deserved ass-kicking, and at best it inspires me to go to the gym the next day.)

I feel ill-equipped to give this movie the appreciation it most likely deserves. The extravagant violence of it all has numbed me beyond comprehension. Call it a defense mechanism, call it PTSD, but please, don't call me for a second screening.

Tissue Rating: 1 out of 5 tissues


Lyn says:

This is a movie of 2 brothers with crossed-purposes fighting within the same army unit during wartime. As the viewers would expect, and which the movie makers wonderfully delivered, it is a story filled with pain, struggle, and frustration, and action scenes containing the horrors of which only wars can produce.

The two brothers in the story are Jin-tae Lee (played by Jang Dong-gun) and Jin-seok (played by Won Bin). As the two brothers lost their father at an earlier age, and their mother became a mute as a result, Jin-tae is forced to take up the roles of both a father and an elder brother to Jin-seok. Because of Jin-tae’s dedication to protect Jin-seok at all costs, and Jin-seok’s determination not to be separated from Jin-tae during the war, the brothers’ relationship with one another fall apart.

Overall the story was well written, and the execution of the movie was quite remarkable. However, the length of the movie given to the story development versus the duration of the climax, was in my view disproportionate and a little disappointing. Sitting through two hours of unending conflict & strife coupled with death and destruction at every other scene, I was looking forward to savoring the bittersweet end as it was sure to enthrall the viewers to experience an overflowing range of emotions. Unfortunately the climax came and went so soon, that all I could do was wipe away my first couple of tears that fell as the movie ended.

Tissue rating: 2.5 out of 5 tissues