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100An intense, powerful film.
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89The most costly and the most popular film in South Korean history is also one of the most gripping and epic war films ever made, and certainly the only one I can think of the portrays the Korean war from the viewpoint of both sides of the conflict.
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88Belongs to that brand of sweeping, conflict-era drama epitomized by "Saving Private Ryan," "Gone with the Wind" and TV miniseries "North and South."
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80A complex film about the minefield of loyalty and betrayal.
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Always entertains, just like ''Pearl Harbor'' and the rest of the best of Hollywood's dumb war movies.
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75An anti-war spectacle that uses the story of brothers divided by the 1950 civil war as a metaphor for the wounds of the split.
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70While it comes on like a flag-waver, it actually delivers something more nuanced. Its underlying skepticism about the Korean War seems to have jibed with the current national mood: The picture was, deservedly, a huge hit.
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70With killing as an end in itself, combatants lose sight of what they were supposed to be taking up arms for in the first place. It's a terrible lesson, and one that Tae Guk Gi teaches with unexpected confidence.
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70You may find some of the story developments melodramatic -- I did -- but the film itself is quite powerful.
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The cloying score aside, this is a searing depiction of war in all its savagery, waste, and folly, with artfully choreographed sequences that surpass the conventions of the genre.
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63It's hard to remain unmoved by Kang's deeply heartfelt homage to his nation's past.
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63Shamelessly contrived and manipulative, Tae Guk Gi packs a visceral wallop.
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63The film is never as powerful or convincing as it should be.
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60It's easy to view the story of these brothers as a larger metaphor for the relationship between the two Koreas, which gives the film an added resonance that your typical Hollywood war movie wouldn't possess.
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60In the rare moments when a rifle, grenade, howitzer, bayonet, dagger, fist, land mine, or flamethrower isn't being deployed, the film pushes its melodramatic plotline with soap operatic shamelessness.
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60Far more ambivalent and ambiguous film than Mr. Spielberg's. Both North and South are portrayed as brutal, abusive regimes that use their citizens as so much cannon fodder.
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50After a sentimental opening sequence, he (Kang) scarcely lets the film pause to breathe, which dulls its effectiveness.
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50Kang remains a superb technician, but somewhere the movie forgot to pack any genuine emotion along with its ordnance and K rations.
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25Almost entirely devoted to combat violence and sentimental interludes.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 34 out of 36
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Mixed: 1 out of 36
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Negative: 1 out of 36
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DaleK.10
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MichaelS.10This is one of the greatest movie I have ever seen. It is like a Korean Saving Private Ryan!
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[Anonymous]10