Brotherhood (2004)

Not only in its portrayal of intense, visceral violence this South Korean war drama is often compared to Spielberg's great "Saving Private Ryan".
The narrative is handled in the same way.
When one of the protagonists - now an old men - is called by government officials and told that the body of his brother may have been found we jump back in time to 1950 as he remembers what happened.

It's a sunny day. Lee Jin-tae (Dong-gun Jang) is at work cleaning other peoples shoes; a job he quit school for to support the family. His younger brother Jin-soek (Bin Won) is still at school. We see them joking and toying around in the town.
When they hear about the news that North Korea has declared war to the South both end up drawn in as soldiers. On the battlefields the brothers witness all the cruelty of war first hand.
Jin-tae, as an older brother would, is willing to do anything in his power to protect Jin-soek and takes lots of risks to earn his brother the right to go home.
But he soon has to realize that his plans won't work out and that he can't rely on laws or
promises. War has no rules. It's chaotic and you'll never find justice on a battlefield.
Eventually it seems like he's losing track and control of what he is doing.

Meanwhile a conflict arises as Jin-soek's understanding for his brothers behaviour is slipping.

After severel months of brutal battles at least Jin-tae seems to have changed for worse.

On top of everything else things start to get a lot more complicated when a member of their family gets accused and arrested for sympathizing with the communistic north.

This is followed by events (that I don't wanna spoil) that deeply shatter Jin-tae's trust in his comrades or even in mankind itself that turns his world and his mind upside down.

There was very much potential in this story given away. With a lower budget would the makers have paid closer attention to the important stuff? Not only this was South Korea's most expensive movie in 2004 but also grossed more money than any other film before. This record was broken by the monster-movie "The host" three years later.
You really can see the budget. The battle sequences are enormous. The film's visuals and sound are literally bombastic. But with that amount of money they probably thought they had to spent it all on the explosions and expensive special effects.

Especially in the first one and a half our (!) the fighting is overlong and repetetive and therefore
quite exhausting after a while and the movie is not spending enough time with the characters.

What also repeats itself is certain conversations especially those between the brothers.
Also some of the scenes/talking involving the brothers are overly sentimentel and melodramatic.
Treated with better writing and more detail this story would have been much more engaging and convincing.

Jin-tae's change and his strange behavior is sometimes incomprehensible not only for his brother but also for the viewers and at some points we start questioning what his motivation really is or if he has just gone nuts.

Still I don't want to deny that there are strong moments in the picture as well.

Some of the turns in the last 45 minutes of this two and a half hour epic are also a bit of a stretch but at least they are a fresh relief of the endless scenes of mayhem in the beginning and make the story fairly more interesting.

In the end the movie is about the essential themes of how strong the bond of brotherhood is and that this love always remains superior to all hate and malice.

Simulatiously and obviously the conflict between the brothers represents the conflict between North and South Korea (though there is no considerable historical content/background told in the film).

It raises existential questions like:
How could one nation, one people ... brothers ... differ so much they start war and kill themselves and most importantly: why does this happen anyway? Korea is only one of many examples.

To generalize you could say that in the end we all are human beings and somehow doesn't that connect all of us? It doesn't matter what side you are fighting for in a war because in one way or the other you will shoot and hit and kill a person; a brother.

Even though there are quite a few flaws in the way the film presents its themes and the overlong running time, the basic idea/outline is a good one and for its high energy, its look and its (obvious but) crucial message I recommend the picture with reservations, so see yourself.