BroThErHooD
Yea, I just watched brotherhood and I must say that I was stunned with the movie. I'm totally amazed that I was quite shocked with the whole show, so let me elaborate on it all since I'm so free now.
When I first heard about the show, and saw all those trailers (on tv mobile as well as on MRT), I thought that it will be a touching show about 2 brothers whose lives and relationship got affected by the war. When I read movie reviews in both New Paper and 8 Days, they described the show as being 'technically exemplary', but it lacks depth in terms of character development as well as being an allegory about the Korean peninsular. Both gave it 3 and a half star, so I just thought it was just a star-studded movie with a pathetic storyline.
Now, basically I din't expect too much from the show, so when I first stepped into the cinema, and after struggling to find my seats (yea....I was late.....), the movie aptly started. The beginning was abit confusing, cause no one knows what really happened, but when it flashback to the 1950s, I thought it was like My Girl that type of nice old town setting.
The moment the war started, I realised that the director was not as simple as what I thought. The gross, bloody images of bodies flying and guts and blood being spilled out stunned me (oh, and it justified its NC-16 rating which I never knew until I went to buy the tickets and that irritating lady asked for my IC). It was then that I sat up and I realised that the director is trying to put across a very strong message. What shocked me even more was that my friend didn't really grimaced much about all the gore, while I was just overwhelmed (the maggots scene was sick).
So let me highlight some of the issues while I thought the director put across so well. I must admit that the plot takes a much secondary role in the whole movie (it follows the war! How exciting can it get?), so plot wise there's not much to comment. But the themes are amazingly highlighted and bold. In my opinion, the director was focusing on war, brotherhood (or kinship), and blind faith.
On the issue of war, he was great at showing us the physical horrors of war, as well as the impact that war can have on your morals, your actions. In the end, right and wrong can't be differentiated, and your more concerned about survival. Even more extreme, you will kill your friend if he is your enemy. Of course, there are always baboon commanders who cared more about the big picture but failed to realise that at the ground level, troops don't care about victory and winning, but rather to survive one more day so that they can return home. Another point is also about the kind of false optimism which soldiers seem to have when it comes to war, that it will always end soon when in fact it won't. That's like super true (think the 2 world wars, korean war, civil war...).
But ultimately, brotherhood was so clearly expressed. On the micro level, we are talking about the bond between brothers, the sacrifices that each other is willing to make. Even more so, the idea of kinship, about how much it overrides a lot of things. On the macro level, we are talking about Korea, the irony about them fighting among themselves, seemingly pointless and all. But I must say the show did such a good job that you can only experience it yourself....Personally, I was so touched that I did drop a few tears at the end.
And this leads on to ideology. Some people are so consumed by ideas that they fail to see that they are actually ignorant of a lot of issues, that their ideas are totally perverted and sick and inhumane. Blind faith is what I will say. The very fact that a lot of conflicts around the war today are caused by blind faith makes it even more perverted in that sense.
And I think both actors did a fantastic job!!!
There's more about the show but I thought it was fantastic, definitely at least a 4 star rating. To some extent, I must say that its even better thanharry potter =P
When I first heard about the show, and saw all those trailers (on tv mobile as well as on MRT), I thought that it will be a touching show about 2 brothers whose lives and relationship got affected by the war. When I read movie reviews in both New Paper and 8 Days, they described the show as being 'technically exemplary', but it lacks depth in terms of character development as well as being an allegory about the Korean peninsular. Both gave it 3 and a half star, so I just thought it was just a star-studded movie with a pathetic storyline.
Now, basically I din't expect too much from the show, so when I first stepped into the cinema, and after struggling to find my seats (yea....I was late.....), the movie aptly started. The beginning was abit confusing, cause no one knows what really happened, but when it flashback to the 1950s, I thought it was like My Girl that type of nice old town setting.
The moment the war started, I realised that the director was not as simple as what I thought. The gross, bloody images of bodies flying and guts and blood being spilled out stunned me (oh, and it justified its NC-16 rating which I never knew until I went to buy the tickets and that irritating lady asked for my IC). It was then that I sat up and I realised that the director is trying to put across a very strong message. What shocked me even more was that my friend didn't really grimaced much about all the gore, while I was just overwhelmed (the maggots scene was sick).
So let me highlight some of the issues while I thought the director put across so well. I must admit that the plot takes a much secondary role in the whole movie (it follows the war! How exciting can it get?), so plot wise there's not much to comment. But the themes are amazingly highlighted and bold. In my opinion, the director was focusing on war, brotherhood (or kinship), and blind faith.
On the issue of war, he was great at showing us the physical horrors of war, as well as the impact that war can have on your morals, your actions. In the end, right and wrong can't be differentiated, and your more concerned about survival. Even more extreme, you will kill your friend if he is your enemy. Of course, there are always baboon commanders who cared more about the big picture but failed to realise that at the ground level, troops don't care about victory and winning, but rather to survive one more day so that they can return home. Another point is also about the kind of false optimism which soldiers seem to have when it comes to war, that it will always end soon when in fact it won't. That's like super true (think the 2 world wars, korean war, civil war...).
But ultimately, brotherhood was so clearly expressed. On the micro level, we are talking about the bond between brothers, the sacrifices that each other is willing to make. Even more so, the idea of kinship, about how much it overrides a lot of things. On the macro level, we are talking about Korea, the irony about them fighting among themselves, seemingly pointless and all. But I must say the show did such a good job that you can only experience it yourself....Personally, I was so touched that I did drop a few tears at the end.
And this leads on to ideology. Some people are so consumed by ideas that they fail to see that they are actually ignorant of a lot of issues, that their ideas are totally perverted and sick and inhumane. Blind faith is what I will say. The very fact that a lot of conflicts around the war today are caused by blind faith makes it even more perverted in that sense.
And I think both actors did a fantastic job!!!
There's more about the show but I thought it was fantastic, definitely at least a 4 star rating. To some extent, I must say that its even better thanharry potter =P
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