Monday, January 24, 2005

   This post will either be a movie review or a discourse on my river of emotion . . . in any case, it's gonna be a long one . . . . .
I'm gonna put this up front first . . . . when I was pre-literate, I didn't cry when Bambi's mother was shot.
When Optimus Prime faded black and died in the movie, I didn't cry then either.
A few years later, when I saw The Terminator allow himself to be lowered into the molten metal, I didn't cry then.
In high school, I saw "Saving Private Ryan", "Braveheart", and "Gladiator" among many. The first times I saw these, I didn't cry.

By grade 11/12, I'll admit I got a little misty at the end of "AI: Artificial Intelligence". Likewise, re-watching the previous three movies could lead to a bit of mist as well . . .

Today, I welled up at the end movie of "Kingdom Hearts" and the concert FMV of "Final Fantasy X-2" . . . and don't get me started on "Lord of the Rings", I got pretty misty then as well . . .

I think it's kinda funny that only now, ever since I became an 'adult proper', movies and stuff just affect me a whole lot more now. I really can't explain it. The whole world is just a lot more emotionally compelling for me now, for whatever reason. Is it because I'm being introduced to so many ideas and works in university? Maybe a little, but I doubt it. Is it because I figured out what it really means to love someone or something? While on that, is it perhaps because of all of you people whom I've gotten so insanely close to despite living oh so far away and yet care about more than the people that live five blocks away? Could be . . .
. . . . . is it that I'm just justifying my need to watch and play so many movies and games and stuff? Umm . . . . . eheh . . .



Aaaaaaaaaaanyways, I'm sure you're all wondering what brought this on. Well, yesterday I was in the asian video store looking for cheap (and possibly bootlegged) movies and I saw this Korean movie my buddy "Faramir" told me about. So, for $5 I picked it up and got home hoping to all that is good that it would play on anything in my house (region worries and all), and that it would have English subs (which the back cover didn't say).

That said, "Taegukgi Hwinalrimyeo" (Or simply "Taegukgi" or "The Brotherhood of War" in some releases) is easily one of the most profound war (or anti-war, I should say) films I have ever seen.

The basic story is of two brothers who get forcibly drafted into the South Korean army during the Korean War in 1950. Once in the war, the older brother spends his time finding ways to protect his younger sibling; the younger one, meanwhile, can only see how the war is affecting, changing, and dehumanising his brother.

In terms of a war film, the battles are brutally intense. Anyone can make the comparison to "Saving Private Ryan" since, well, that film's definitive now. But yeah, very visceral fighting, very brutal . . . really gives a sense of how horrible war is. This is good, because much of the movie is spent showing the 'other side' to it all . . .

The older brother is slowly doing pretty vile things himself, especially in terms of prisoners and the like. Meanwhile at home people are being shot for "being Communists". It was really frightening at times, the things they were showing . . .

So why does this affect me so much? Granted, I'm a sucker for the good ol' Hollywood ending (which is ironic, considering it's a Korean movie), but there was more to it. I have two brothers, after all, and one is already a police officer. So I've got that going for me already . . . but I think the thing that clinched it was while I was watching it . . .

It was early in the movie, just as the brothers are stuck on the train full of drafted citizens. I was watching it on the computer and my mom was on the other side of the desk. All she could hear was the fighting of the one guy against the military police so his younger brother could escape (though he couldn't). My mom commented, "It sounds like you bought a really violent movie . . ." . . . and this was before the war scenes . . . . . but yeah, I then described the whole thing of brothers getting drafted, their mother outside the train, the brothers' heads out the window shouting for her to be careful . . . . . my mom then added, "that sort of idea scares me so much . . ."

Her comment was understandable . . . after all, she and her family moved to Canada when the Communists took over China. I know very few things about her dad other than that he escaped from mainland China to Hong Kong by swimming to get away before sending for the rest of them. Plus, all my grandparents lived through World War II over there, so I'm sure she heard plenty about that as well . . .

I'm ranting, obviously. I don't really know where I'm going with this . . . I guess I just really felt like just writing just now. Heh . . . and it's not like "Taegukgi" is some sort of make-all, break-all film (though it's pretty close). I dunno, I guess I'd probably do this with any really emotionally accessible movie. But yeah, very powerful film, regardless of how much baggage you bring into it to begin with . . .

. . . . . maybe I should check my baggage in before I start these things . . . . . . . meh . . .


. . . . . and then of course, everyone keeps telling me to watch "Twin Spica", so now that I've watched the first episode I'm all misty-eyed again . . . heh, thanks guys. You rock.
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