Review of Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (2004) by Alexander C — 09 Jan 2008

''Jin-tae: [pulls out Jin-seok's pen that he lost] I found this in the fire. I've been holding onto this for you.

Jin-seok: Give it to me... when I see you again.''.

I wish this was all just a dream. I want to wake up in my bed, and over breakfast, I'd tell you that I had a strange dream. Then I would go to school, and you and mom would go to work.

Early, one Sunday Morning, in late June of the year 1950, was the beginning of a terrible turbulent conflict that would rip a people apart. Thousands of casualties, a whole unity of a nation being the biggest of all. Korea, a country still plagued by a guilty past, divided even to this day.

Told through the eyes of Jin-tae Lee, played by.

Dong-Kun Jang and younger brother Jin-seok Lee played by Bin Won , who go to war and are cruelly ripped from their family and become embroiled in a war North against South.

The acting is sensational, the cinematography perfect, the battle sequences rivaling Saving Private Ryan and Letters from Iwo Jima possibly even surpassing them.

How do you criticize a masterpiece?

Answer is you can't.

Raw brutality, compelling humanity and even inhumanity. Emotional, powerful, shocking and some of the greatest scenes that had me getting teary eyed and come the film's climax crying my eyes out.

Ideologies, communism and capitalist imperialism. This film shows them for what they are, dangerous. There's always some cause of war be it religious beliefs/persecution or idealistic propaganda.

A gripping tale and account of two brothers and the meaning of sacrifice.

In my opinion it's the greatest brutal raw emotional film seen recently.

Still haunted by Jin-seok standing over the bones at the end and all the senseless killing, families divided, this demands to be watched.

For brotherhood, for family, for love shining through and a journey of emotion and epic proportions.