Gunhamdo (2017) Reviews

• A mediocre period drama bolstered by extreme patriotism

  TheBigSick2017-08-15

  Like "Wolf Warrior 2" in China, the commercial success of "The Battleship Island" in Korea can be largely attributed to its extreme patriotism. From a pure critical point of view, "The Battleship Island" is rather mediocre, if not utterly catastrophic. Admittedly, the film is not a total disaster. There are some brutal and bloody action scenes. But this rare merit is easily overshadowed by more CGI-enhanced (in other words, fake) action sequences. Also, Hwang Jung-min and Kim Su-an perform well in the movie such that the love between their characters, the father Kang-OK and the daughter So-hee, undoubtedly moves the audience. Yet most characters in the movie are flat and one-dimensional, especially Park Moo-young, played by Song Joong-ki. To make things worse, countless problems lie in the plot, the storytelling and the editing. How did Park arrive at the Battleship Island? Why did Park survive long after being shot and severely wounded? Why were the Japanese completely unaware of the meeting of the Koreans? Why did the Japanese give up after the death of their commanding officer? Why did the Koreans see the explosion of the atomic bomb, which was physically very far away? Why does the movie end suddenly without a fourth act?

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• The Battleship Island Review: A visual masterpiece, deserves to be seen.

  Prashast_Singh2017-09-13

  Movie: The Battleship Island (15) Rating: 4.5/5 I'll be straight: the film was breathtaking. I started watching and didn't realise when 2 hours passed away. It was really engaging, and well executed. Visually it looks like a fantasy. Ryoo Seung-wan's recent release THE BATTLESHIP ISLAND is a well made action film that never gets too melodramatic and the entertainment quotient remains quite high throughout. It's another time I'm impressed with Hwang Jung-min. He delivers another great performance as he did in ASURA. So Ji-sub was decent in the action sequences, but one would wish his character got a proper scope in the second hour. Song Joong-ki's character was extremely well written and he delivers a great performance. Kim Su-an does another mindblowing job after TRAIN TO BUSAN. One can only wish she does more such roles because she really acts well. Same for rest of the cast. The screenplay is excellent: it stays focused and never deviates from storytelling. The action sequences are jaw-dropping and mindblowing: make sure you watch the film in a very high quality so as to appreciate the film even more. The cinematography is excellent and captures the eye-catching visuals very well. The editing is decent and really, I didn't wish the film was shorter. THE BATTLESHIP ISLAND turns out to be a terrific action film which should be seen not just because of its high quality technical values but also to know about this extremely well-narrated tale of survival.

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• Very well executed - and terrifically entertaining!

  dave-mcclain2017-08-11

  The name of and the setting for the South Korean historical fantasy action-drama "The Battlefield Island" (NR, 2:12) is rooted in a fascinating but little-known and previously nearly forgotten chapter from Japanese and Korean history. Japan's Hashima Island lies off the shoreline of Nagasaki and gets its more famous nickname of Battlefield Island (Gunkanjima in Japanese) because of its oblong shape and especially how it looks from above, with the sea walls and many concrete buildings added. Beginning in 1887, during Japan's rapid industrialization program, Hashima became home to a mining operation which took coal from under the sea. Meanwhile, history also tells us that in 1910, Japan annexed Korea. During World War II, this colony to the west of Japan was expected to support the country's war effort, including supplying troops to fight the Emperor's battles and workers to mine coal, in order to keep the Japanese war machine chugging along. Although the island's mines employed Japanese workers in various numbers from 1887 through 1974, and Hashima became an important symbol of Japanese modernization, its period as home to Koreans subjected to forced labor and horrible conditions is a blight on its past. (That complicated history required a political compromise between Japan and Korea before Hashima was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015, part of the group of places called "Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining".) This film imagines what an uprising and attempted escape by those Korean workers might have looked like. Lee Kang-OK (Hwang Jung-min) is a bandleader in Korea during World War II. He is the single father to Lee So-hee (Kim Su-an), a precocious but talented little girl who sings and dances with her father's band. Kang-OK decides to take his band and his daughter to Japan where he believes they will be safer. The group ends up on a ship which is destined for the location of the film's title. During the intake process for the island's new workers, Kang-OK desperately works to convince the officials there that he and his bandmates are in the wrong place. While the musicians are not allowed to leave the island, the island's director does spare them from the coal mines and allows them to serve him as musicians and in other capacities. Kang- OK is also able to get permission for his daughter to continue performing with the band and work in a domestic capacity, where she is looked after by the island's "comfort women", especially Oh Mal- nyeon (Lee Jung-hyun). Although she is still a young girl, So-hee is sometimes dressed up and made up like the comfort women and, under the control of the island's director, her safety seems far from certain. Kang-OK does what he can to see and protect his daughter (within the tough restrictions the Japanese place on the Korean workers) and becomes increasingly desperate to get her off the island. Most of Battleship Island's Japanese and Korean residents work in the undersea coal mines, in harsh and dangerous conditions. This is especially true of the Korean forced laborers who are treated by their Japanese supervisors and guards as slaves, with no thought given to their safety or even their survival. Within the group, a Korean gangster named Choi Chil-sung (So Ji-sub) literally fights for and earns the right to become the unofficial leader of the Koreans on the island, a situation which could either benefit or harm Kang-OK's efforts to get himself and his daughter off the island. Meanwhile, a Korean agent trained by the Americans arrives on the island posing as a worker. His mission is to arrange the escape of an aging and highly respected Korean resistance leader (Lee Geung-young) who is being held captive on the island, a situation which Kang-OK also tries to use for his benefit. As these circumstances come to a head, the Japanese military officials in charge of the island are coming to the realization that the war is nearing its end, that Japan is likely to lose and that they must make take drastic action to ensure their own survival in the aftermath. The film's plot and subplots all culminate in a daring attempt by the Korean workers to escape Battlefield Island and sail back to Korea, just at the moment history tells us that the Americans are about to take drastic actions of their own which will definitely end the war. "The Battlefield Island" is an enthralling and fantastically entertaining historical fantasy. It feels like a South Korean mix of 1997's Oscar-winning "Life is Beautiful" and the 2001 TV miniseries "Uprising", just with Japanese Imperial forces instead of Nazis and South Korean forced laborers standing in for European Jews. The fact that the main story is complete fiction is almost immaterial, especially set against the backdrop of a real place and an actual chapter in World War II history. In that sense, it may remind Movie Fans of Quentin Tarantino's 2009 historical fantasy "Inglourious Basterds". Although most people know that no plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler ever succeeded, that didn't make the movie any less enjoyable. This film is on a scale and has production values which stand up to some of the best Hollywood blockbusters, but with a decidedly Asian bent. Director Seung-wan Ryoo ("Veteran", "The Berlin File", "The City of Violence") skillfully balances the story's action with its tender moments and its brutality with its humanity, giving audiences worldwide a film that deserves to be seen by all Movie Fans, even those who are most averse to seeing movies with subtitles. Although some of the plot points are a bit too far-fetched, this is an exceptional film, not to be missed. "A"

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• a meaningful & extremely moving film

  aminifatimaaa2019-01-22

  Profound for the simple reason that this film breathes life into history by presenting this extraordinarily gripping true story. Absolutely stunning. One amazingly kinetic experience, splendid production values and some of the most intense staging and action you'll see within the korean film industry.

• A Blissful Middle Between Tarantino's Revenge Fantasy and Historical Drama

  tpark-463682017-08-06

  ***Minor Spoilers Ahead*** I've read four "professional" critics' reviews on Metacritics so far, and I do not believe that they are doing justice to the movie. So I write mine own here. The movie, although inspired by the harsh conditions of Japanese occupation of Korea, is highly fictional, and the last action piece never happened. That said, the movie is a re-visioned piece, much like Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds." The movie borrows many elements from Tarantino. 1) Inhumane treatment by historically superior entity, 2) re- visioned telling of the story, and 3) interim comedy. The third element is one this movie executes well. The comedic relationship between the two main characters, along with the horrific conditions they are placed in, make you feel invested in their future. As it is with Korean cinematic custom, the actions sequence was brutally violent. However, it was magnificently done. Every minute of it I was clutching the sides of my seat, hoping that the protagonists would prevail. The movie also has layers of hidden messages that perhaps foreigners might not get. The movie's ending action piece is accompanied by "Ecstasy of Gold." The music feels out of place yet it oddly fits into the narrative of the entire movie. There, the filmmaker's alluding to the same message "The Good and the Bad and the Ugly" presents in its scene. The scene from "the Good" shows a man* running in a mass graveyard but ecstatic due to his satisfaction of greed. What should be a solemn and mournful place is turned to a fest of greed. The message is toward current Korean culture. Likewise, the filmmaker is criticizing Koreans who live blissfully in unparalleled amount of wealth, almost forgetting the holocaust their ancestors suffered merely two generations ago. The downside is that there is a lack of development for other characters. By consequence, the side-plot feels out of place and too sudden. There is a twist in the middle, but that twist is likewise affected by the underdevelopment of characters. A good twist needs breadcrumbs leading up to the twist so that it gives the audience the feeling of "aha!" after combining all the clues. This movie had none. In sum, this movie is a great piece that reminds Koreans of the horrors of their ancestors. And, for us foreigners, the movie is informative of the actions of the other side of the AXIS during World War II. It is a historical fact that this island is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Though the Japanese came to an agreement with Koreans that the site used forced labor, they are not providing this information on their tour program and their tour website.

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