Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42067 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-09-05
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, Dubbed, PAL
• Subtitled in: English
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 142 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A big, bruising epic of the Korean War, Tae Guk Gi or Brotherhood smashed box-office records when it played in South Korea in 2004, almost as though the country needed to re-live the trauma at a 50-year distance. For the rest of the world, this movie looks like a ground-level reckoning in a melodramatic key, with an authentic feel for battle lines as well as home front. It follows two brothers--one uneducated and forceful, the other intellectual and reserved--as they are united and then divided by the conflict. The broadly emotional story has some of the power of tales of the American Civil War, when family members found themselves on opposite sides of a battle. Director Kang Je-gyu , who made the lively female-assassin hit Shiri, takes a blunt approach to the material (including a Saving Private Ryan-style framing device). And at 150 minutes, he has plenty of time for head-splitting, blood-spraying combat. This movie is meant as a punch in the stomach, and it connects. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

Synopsis
Brothers Jin-Seok (Bin Won) and Jin-Tae (Dong-Kun Jang) come from a family whose unremitting struggle with poverty has led them to place all their hopes in Jin-seok, the younger of the two. His older brother Jin-Tae shines shoes in order to raise money to send him to university, while their mother runs a noodle shop; the patriarch has passed away, leaving the little family to fend for themselves. Their precarious aspirations are shattered by the outbreak of the Korean War, when Jin-Seok is drafted and Jin-Tae joins up as well, in order to work for his brother's release. He has neither the influence nor the financial means to send Jin-Seok back home; his only hope lies in the acceptance of dangerous missions that will earn him the Medal of Honour and his brother's release. Jin-Seok, however, does not understand his brother's intentions, and mistakes his valiant bravery for misplaced patriotism and greedy ambition, until finally and tragically he is confronted by the truth. Upon its release, this moving war drama became the highest-grossing film in Korea.

Customer Reviews

brilliant!!!
I bought it hoping for a half descent war film. I got far more than I expected. I was actually choking with a little emotion before it even got properly started.

It's been said the opening is too long. I didn't think it was. It allowed me to get to know the two main characters, their simplicity and uncomplication. They were not politicians, idealists or warriors. Just ordinary men with happy and contented lives...
suddenly they are pulled from a crowd and forced to fight. I don't think they even got training. Experience and survival was their only lessons.

I don't know much about the korean war but if half of this film is based on fact it must have been a terrible time and place to live in.

This film must be heavily influenced by Saving Private Ryan but then goes a step beyond. For example in one scene the men get shelled. The best I ever saw. I almost felt the fear of being buried alive by tons of dirt from the 'splash!'. The fighting is far more savage with both sides resorting to fists and bricks. Its gory, its sad and sometimes very disturbing. Because it also shows that human beings can be brutal even to those that share language, boundaries and even childhoods.

And the ending had me close to tears. Its the most original way to finish. I can't say why without ruining the impact so I will say Im not one who tends to be touched by films but this one hit the spot.

So excellant!!! And thank god they didn't mess it up by dubbing over the sound. Anyone who has seen both versions of Stalingrad will know what I mean.

An epic war film of great emotional depth and complexity
For those you who usually make a point of only watching Hollywood movies, this might well be the film to make you change your mind about non-western cinema. The is a big-budget, highly professional film about the fate of two brothers through the chaos of the Korean war. The acting is first rate throughout, with the elder of the two brothers worthy of particular note. The story moves from the accidental and involuntary enlisting of the brothers into the South Korean army, their rude introduction to the horrors of war and the gradual deterioration of their relationship. The battle scenes are spectacular, capturing all the messy confusion of the front line and the visceral brutality and intimacy of trench warfare, and the evolution of the brothers relationship is gradual and credible. One of the films particular virtues is the wealth of background characters who give the viewer a sense of the sheer variety of personalities within a single unit, and the way in which the war affected each individual differently. They also provide many of the films most comic and tragic moments. For those who might be concerned that a film about the Korean War produced by South Korea would be somewhat partisan, let me assure you that this film is anything but one-sided. The film portrays both sides with great sympathy and at the same time an unflinching willingness to convey the brutalities committed on each side. Honour and love, hatred and violence are all depicted with equal candour. To describe the ending as heartbreaking is no overstatement. All in all, a modern masterpiece, easily the equal of A Thin Red Line or Saving Private Ryan. Watch this film. You will not regret it.

Up there with the best
What can I say except this is a great war film. This film is about the Korean War, a bloody civil war where brothers turn into enemies, it was the first time I was watching an eastern made war film and didn't know what to really expect, all I can say is the east can do it to. The film visually is great with lots of great war scenes and is also emotional and will have you really feelling for the characters. Just how Saving Private Ryan was a great western made war film this is a really great eastern made war film and is definetly up there with the best of war films.