Brotherhood of War

Saw Brotherhood of War, a Korean war film. It's called the Korean Saving Private Ryan and indeed is extremely reminiscent of the Steven Spielberg war film. Both films start in the present day, with an old soldier recalling his entire life up to that point. Both films are full of pathos and drama, feature horns and violins on the soundtrack, and both are clearly just oozing with money. There are elaborate crowd scenes with hundreds of refugees, stretching off into the distance and of course endless battle scenes with a football field's-worth of sod being flung into the sky.

The plot is much goofier than Saving Private Ryan however. It is this: two brothers in pre-war Korea spend their lives eating candy out of each other's hands and lolling their heads in a perpetual near-swoon of absolute ecstasy. Their adorable lives are brought to a screeching halt by the Korean war being declared. They are both drafted and the older brother sets about trying to keep his younger brother safe and/or sent back to civilian life. He does this by volunteering himself for every risky mission there is, so that his brother is spared as per a bargain struck with his commander. This results in the brothers' personalities diverging. The elder becomes battle-hardened, blood thirsty, and decorated and the younger brother stays more normal and undistinguished. The brothers clash, switch sides and battle against the evil communists and even against the cruelties of the South Korean army. Eventually the war ends.

I didn't think very much of this film. War films are not really interesting to me. I sort of enjoy them as history lessons (I'm very ignorant when it comes to history) and find all of the grandstanding and posturing to be faintly ridiculous. At one point the brothers embody the pro/anti war sentiments, shouting back and forth "We've got to kill them! They're savage animals" "But we are not animals!" "They started this war!" etc. I side more with the naive younger brother but of course I have the enormous luxury of not having my opinions matter that much anyway. The film is not so much about justifying war or teaching history as it is with glorifying warfare. Somber violins and horns respectfully play over coffins of anonymous dead. By dint of running and shouting, the two brothers play mayhem with the army's structure and, (most damning of all) the trenches almost look like a kind of fun place to be. There's a lot of hustle and bustle and limbs being blown off, but our two brothers are safe behind their protagonist-shields. What matters nations and ideologies to this film when there is family drama to mine?