Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Taegukgi (2004)
Director: Kang Je-Gyu
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
The most expensive Korean movie ever made (US$13 million), and the most successful (11 million admissions and counting), Kang's third feature reruns the Korean War as a family melodrama. It's named after Korea's national flag. One day in 1950 shoeshine boy Jin-Tae (Jang) is pressganged into the army alongside his intellectual kid brother Jin-Seok (Won). Determined to find a way to send Jin-Seok home to mum and university, Jin-Tae keeps risking his life for a gong. However, Jin-Seok is appalled to see him brutalised by his apparent lust for glory and disowns him. Then, when Jin-Tae hears (wrongly) that Jin-Seok has been burned alive by zealous homeguards, he furiously defects to the communists and becomes a feared military commander. The film's unrelenting audio-visual assault is somewhat at odds with its 'strong men cry' sentimentality; this is not the Korean Saving Private Ryan it would like to be. Most non-Koreans, furthermore, are likely to baulk at Jang's bug-eyed, hysterical performance, the ropey CGI animation and the amateurish subtitles.Author: TR
Cast & crew
Director: Kang Je-Gyu
Producer: Kang Je-Gyu, Choi Jin-Hwa, Lee Seong-Hoon
Cast: Jang Dong-Gun, Won Bin, Lee Eun-Joo, Jo Yoon-Hee, Lee Young-Ran, Ahn Kil-Gang full cast
Genre(s): War
Duration: 140 mins
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.
What do you think?
Post your review now