WOW!! It's rare that I can watch a movie and still feel so emotional after it's over. My tears are still streaming at the love one brother had for another!! This is a MUST SEE for all. This movie is not just about war.....the storyline between these brothers leaves me speechless and very emotional. What a great job to the director, cast and crew! Great overall movie!! Also, I am an American military veteran and was stationed in South Korea in 1997 (Osan Air Base). I've been to the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and what an eerie feeling it was to stand inside of that small building next to those North Korean soldiers knowing that if I stepped onto the other side of that table I'd have a serious problem per our briefing.

"Tae Guk Gi" is a fine tale of two brothers forced to fight in a war that neither understands. The older, less literate is protective of his younger, college bound sibling, so much so that he makes a deal with his commanding officer: If I perform bravely enough to receive a medal for heroism, then my younger brother shall be free to return home. His daring, and its effects on the younger brother is the driving force of the movie. Additionally, the longing of the older for his fiance is a secondary, yet pivotal storyline in the movie.The preface to war, were we see the two young brothers, is very wonderfully done. The war brings about an aging to the characters, and they do look older. The action is fun enough for any action fan, but the story of the brothers commands the most attention.The DVD extras are very nice. One short has interviews with the director, writers and actors, along with real-life survivors of the war. It's interesting to see the South Koreans viewpoint, as opposed to the American view.For movie making buffs, a comparison of the story board to the filmed action is very interesting. A still photography section gives a nice capture of the film, something I'm usually not very impressed with for most movies.I would suggest those who don't like subtitles watch the movie a second time in Korean. You'll remember the jest of what they are saying, but get a truer feeling for the actors than in the dubbed version.

I read much about this 2004 Korean War period piece movie, and alas, never got a time to watch it. Until I finally have lent my attention to this long, 2 hours and a half, sometimes brooding, sometimes violent film. And yes, I have enjoyed the film a lot. No, not the sheer amount of violence that it depicts, the clear and very sharp anti-war message that it delivers very powerfully and skillfully. I knew the Korean war was a merciless and bloody affair, but was not prepared to the utter array of scenes and blood-chilling battles the film showed us. What is more and the most important here is the straight-ahead and transparent message of "war is all hell". The story of two brothers taking part in this bloody war makes the whole thing more personal and even intimate, thus telling us how people could change in the midst of carnage and massacre. Jang Dong-gun as Lee Jin-tae and Won Bin as Lee Jin-seok, Jin-tae's younger brother are great protagonists and their personal tragedies make this awesome film eve more subtle and wanton at the same time. Civil war is awful and crazy. This film shows that plain and simple. I do recommend this epic highly

Hi! In case you haven't read up on your World History, we're still at war with North Korea. We basically signed an Armistice Treaty, back in 1953 to stop shooting each other point blank in the face and on the news of current events. This Instant Classic War Movie, TAE GUK GI (The Brotherhood of War) succeeds in showing us the "true grit" of what urban open head exploding (like watermelons) street by street warfare looks like. Directed by Kang Je-Gyu, this bullet loud numbing graphic war celluloid piece freely tells a heavy one sided story from a South Korean point of view (the North Communists are seen mainly as a small but evil empire). I'm painfully reminded (as an American), in the major scene where the Chinese Army joins the bloody fray with North Korea, that this force multitude of hundreds of red enemy assailants scouring over a hill like army ants, must have been dead similar to what the lone guard Brave Texans (standing tall next to the likes of Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie) saw coming at them while defending The Alamo in 1836 against Gen. Santa Ana's 3000 plus Army.TAE GUK GI focuses it's blood smeared camera lens on two Brothers Jin Tae and Lee Jin Seok. One struggles to maintain his humanity and sense of universal justice, in the midst of battle, while the other Brother mentally transforms himself into a fear-no-bullet "Super Saiyan" (like Dragon Ball Z) on the battlefield, in a desperate bold plan to get his younger Brother sent home early (to help survive the Family Name). Other talented Supporting Characters "fly in and fly out" like rice thrown in your face, but they stick in your memory, with their longing eyes, funny remarks, and cold blooded commanders. The Mom, the Wife to be, the soldier comrades, the wry weary Captains, and the Kids, all evolve and revolve around the two South Korean Brothers.On a technical military note, it was interesting to see propeller driven Pre-Jet Age Allied Aircraft "raining down death" with their WWII mounted machine guns (probably still oiled up from fighting the Japanese approx 5 years earlier). And you don't even see the American Allied Army until 2/3rds into the action. What we're fed here is a steady dose of humane mental anguish and desperation to stay sane while absorbing the fateful costs of hunger forced made decisions. All of which bring us to today's Armistice with North Korea. We still look at each other, everyday, with loaded modern guns on each side of a barbed wire fence at the 38th Parallel. How many lives would change, in this generation, between Brothers, Family, and Friends, if one side decides to "open fire" all over again?