Beautiful, without an equal.The acting, superb. The story, breathtaking. The action, astonishing. The screen writing, unparalleled.This movie left a deep impression on me. I recommend watching it if you haven't, you'll find yourself going through a roller coaster of emotions, clinching to your chair/couch without being able to leave.The story is not for the weak-hearted as you see war in it's most true form, the emotions from both sides as the fighting comes to a close. The relationship between enemies, comrades, friends. In the end, making men cry, young & old.(Blue-ray is recommended if you want to truly see the most subtle touches, I could not view it any other way)

Let me start off by saying that I'm a huge fan of any war movies/documentaries/TV-series/etc. It's hard to do wrong when I'm so interested in the subject manner. Technical aspects aside, my main gripe with The Front Line is that it is so full of clichés, overused tropes, imitations of other war films, and exaggerations. The fat guy as comedic relief? Check. Melodramatic reactions from just about everyone? Check. Blue filter to mean sad and orange filter to mean warmth? Check, please. Every other scene! Scenes that looked strangely and suspiciously familiar to Saving Private Ryan/Band of Brothers/Gone with the Wind/stereotypical war movies? CHECK. The film was so over the top and aimlessly drawn out. More than 50 minutes could have been safely cut without sacrificing the plot line. At some point while writing the script, perhaps the writers felt the film could use a more personal/almost romantic story. Enter "Two Seconds", a sniper from the North Korean side. The two male characters and her do not share a particularly strong and personal relationship; yet, we're forced to place an uncalled for amount of value on their connections, especially between her and Su-Hyeok (this is how his name was subtitled in my DVD; different from the IMDb listing). The writing and plot lines (that somehow felt as if there were too many and too few of the plot lines) were masterful examples of trite war film dialogs. Nary a quick chuckle escaped my mouth; probably because the joke was stale and again, derivative. I am fluent enough in Korean to understand the dialog, so I don't think it was lost in translation either. The acting, man. It was as if they read a manual on acting from the dollar store in the 1970s and followed it, word for word. It didn't feel organic, believable, or smart for me. Why do all the soldiers have such pearly white teeth? North Korean army men had the same haircuts, for the most part, but the South Korean army was mixing it up. My favorite questionable moment was when a group of the South Korean soldiers were on the hunt for Two Seconds and finally were within range of her. Hiding behind a boulder of sorts, the leader places his head on a rifle and raises it slowly above to see whether she will shoot/can see him or not. She shoots and the helmet is knocked off. A few seconds later, the audience should some how forget about this because the leader just raises his whole damn head from behind so he can get a better view. Say, didn't we just learn that she's going to shoot? If I were him, I would maybe move to the other side of the boulder or have some sort of tactic before raising my head. This concern was not addressed in the movie whatsoever because the storyline progressed with this factor being inconsequential. & Eun-Pyo - why wouldn't you at least capture this incredibly dangerous sniper who has been attacking your men? Ultimately, I say I don't know what I watched because this movie seemed to be an unsatisfying stew of other works, unoriginal characters and dialog, and bad acting. I would give them one star, but I have to give them credit for the few scenes that were shot nicely. I don't know how well this film was received in Korea, but I can't believe this was the best the country could offer for Academy Award contention.

"He said our enemy wasn't commies, but the war itself." Toward the end of Korean War Lieutenant Kang Eun-Pyo is sent to investigate a murder on the front lines. He reaches the area called Aerok Hill where the fighting is most intense. Soon after the truth is reveled a cease fire is signed and the two sides rejoice. But the war is far from over. This war movie interested me more then most of the recent ones. The main reason is that my grandfather served in the Korean War and there hasn't been a lot of movies made about that war. I was interested to see the stuff he refused to tell me about. After watching this I can see why. The movie is a Korean movie so the entire movie deals with a platoon of South Korean soldiers and their struggles. I have said before that for better or worse every war movie since it's release is compared to "Saving Private Ryan", and I never thought a movie could top that one. This is as close as I've seen and in some ways may be better. This is far and away better then "Letters From Iwo Jima" but like both of those movies you are so involved with the characters it is no longer a movie of nameless faces dying but people you feel a connection with. This movie makes you feel all kinds of emotions but the last half hour will make you feel things you never knew you could. Another example of how much power a movie has when it's done right. I highly recommend this movie. Overall, one of, if not the best war movie I have ever seen. I give it an A.

The Front Line Go-ji-jeon is not as good as Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War, which is one of the best war films from any country. What it does give you is a good example of the futility of war and how events in war can made little sense to a sane person. One of the interesting points in the movie was the signing of the peace documents during the ongoing peace negotiations and see General Mark Wayne Clark's signature focused on. General Mark Wayne Clark was considered by many to be one of the worst examples of the leadership chain in the US Army during World War II, do a little research on Clark and it will help you understand that there were a few very inept Generals in the US military just as there are poor CEO's in the corporate world today. Again very good war flick and another good movie from South Korea.