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Information

A.k.a.
The Front Line
Year
2011
Runtime
133 min.
Director
Hun Jang
Genres
Action, Drama, War, History
Rating *
7.4
Votes *
4,046
Checks
185
Favs
13
Dislikes
3
Favs/checks
7.0% (1:14)
Favs/dislikes
4:1
* View IMDb information

Top comments

  1. Siskoid's avatar

    Siskoid

    A Korean film about their civil war's last days, and South Korea's official entry in 2012's Academy Awards. The fact that it didn't make the short list takes nothing away from this powerful and very human war film. The look and feel is not unlike Band of Brothers, which is high praise from my perspective. The plot revolves around a hill that is taken and re-taken by both armies on a regular basis, and the investigation into a possible mole smuggling things from one side to the other. In the process, we get to know a number of characters in Alligator Company quite well, and naturally feel for them in their final(?) moments. There's a great, tragic twist (from History) near the end. Does it bring something new to the war film genre? I think it does, even if it doesn't need to. Specific stories are worth telling to pay tribute to those who lived through them (though I believe the characters are fictional), and invariably show us war as a universal experience. What it adds is, first, a non-American perspective we're not used to, about a war that's not cinema's favorite, and second, a lyricism and sweetness connected to brother fighting brother in such a war. Aerok Hill, the setting, is also wonderfully presented and unusual. Never a boring moment with this one, whether we're talking action or character building. 8 years 8 months ago
  2. DJPowWow's avatar

    DJPowWow

    aka: "The Front Line"

    Moving, very well directed and acted. Despite being focused mostly on the South Korean side of the conflict, both sides are, for the most part, treated as equally suffering the long war between them. Both North and South Korean soldiers are looking forward to a ceasefire, and end to the war and the senseless bloodshed. The whole "war is hell" and "not so different after all" tropes may be retread territory by this point, but it still doesn't soften the blow when the rival soldier companies, who've grown to respect each other as the war winds down, are forced by their governments and militaries to wipe each other out in one last battle.
    11 years 10 months ago
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