Bong Joon-ho's Oscar-winning "Parasite" has drawn attention to Korean cinema. I had seen some Korean movies prior to that, but I just saw this one, and it deserves special mention.
The Korean War was the first military conflict of the Cold War; one might call it a proxy war in the Cold War. We may have heard countless stories about what went on or what the motivations were, but we don't often hear what it was like to be in the middle of the war. Jang Hoon's "Go-ji-jeon" ("The Front Line" in English) looks at that. What I took from the movie is essentially the same thing that John Sayles's "Men with Guns" said: to the people caught in the middle of the war, there's no difference between either side. As the character in Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" said, anyone with a gun is the enemy.
It's got some of the most intense battle scenes that I've seen. And on top of it, the Korean War only ended with a truce, so it's technically ongoing, just without active combat. This is one movie that I definitely recommend.
Plot summary
Towards the end of the Korean War an uneasy ceasefire is ordered, but out on the Eastern front line of the Aerok Hills fierce fighting continues. A race to capture a strategic point to determine a new border between the two Koreas is the ultimate prize. A bullet is then found in the body of dead company commander of the South Korean army. The bullet that killed the company commander belongs to the South Korean army. Lieutenant of the Defense Security Command Kang Eun-Pyo is ordered to go out into the Eastern front line and investigate the murder. When Kang Eun-Pyo arrives in the Aerok Hills he is surprised to find his old friend Kim Soo-Hyeok commanding troops in the Aerok Hills. Kang Eun-Pyo believed Kim Soo-Hyeok was dead. In their younger years, Kim Soo-Hyeok was a meek student, but he eventually became the leader of Aerok company as a lieutenant. The situation in the Aerok company raises many flags in the eyes of Kang Eun-Pyo. Soldiers wear North Korean uniforms inside due to the cold weather, a 20-year-old leads troops as a captain and the reappearance of his old friend Kim Soo-Hyeok. The countdown to the ceasefire begins as the lives of countless soldiers fall to the wayside ...
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Movie Reviews
Are there any good guys in the middle of a war?
Not done yet
The war (or specific battles/events during the war) between North and South Korea has been the backbone of quite a few South Korean movies. Most of them really get something good out of this mess. And this movie is no different. Staying mostly on one side, you still get to see "the enemy" and their points of view from time to time. It is superbly cut together and acted very fine.
While I'm not sure about how accurate the movie is by presenting the events (I'm guessing it takes a few creative freedoms),it does not hold back when it comes to punches (or bullets for that matter). The lines between good and evil are really thin. You might argue there are none. The grey area is very big, that is one thing that is very true though. Not the best war movie to come out of Korea, it still is superior to a lot of other war movies.
Typically gutsy Korean war outing
THE FRONT LINE is a typical addition to the recent wave of South Korean war movies that strive to explore new avenues on a very famous theatre of war. The last two I saw were WELCOME TO DONGMAKGOL and 71 INTO THE FIRE; the former was a politically intriguing exploration of the nature of conflict itself, while the latter was a flag-waving crowd-pleaser.
THE FRONT LINE falls somewhere between the two, refusing to demonise opponents while at the same time providing plenty of gritty war action. The earth-flying battle sequences are by far the highlight of this film as the screen is transformed into a nightmarish and barren landscape of blown-up hillsides, dingy trenches and muddy holes in the ground. This is real warfare, post-SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, throwing you into the thick of realistic action and making you feel like you're fighting at the side of the protagonists.
It's a pleasure to report that the non-battle storyline is every bit as watchable as the scenes taking place on the battlefield. As in the earlier BROTHERHOOD, much of the plot revolves around the developing relationship between two characters whom the war transforms in different ways: one becomes battle-weary and resigned, the other slightly unhinged and with a real killer instinct. It's a poignant, carefully-drawn relationship and one that sustains the running time admirably. Okay, so some of the sub-plots openly copy those of earlier movies (the whole sniper thing in particular) but that doesn't detract from what is a very good recent war movie.