Brotherhood

[Spike]

Bought it today and watched it tonight.

 

It's a Korean made film about the civil war in the 50's.

 

It's been a while since I have seen a film with so many themes running through without so obviously pointing to or playing on them.

 

Family, politics, honour, the horror of war and it's impact on all to mention a few.

 

It gets a bit schmaltzy (well, Korean hollywood but not US hollywood) at times - maybe because it's so well made and on quite a big scale but the fighting scenes are some of the best that I have ever seen and often forego the usual bullets and bombs for hand to hand combat.

 

Perhaps it's easier to appreciate or understand the horrors when you don't have the usual nationalist sentiments - perhaps in this case because it's about a civil war from a perspective we rarely see - US/UN etc are involved but they are never seen and that in itself makes it more of a raw experience.

 

The plot and the turns also keep the story away from a glorification or celebration of war and the journey that the two brothers make and the way that they develop - almost like when you see those pics of DNA itself twisting and changing around the one common strand without ever touching it - help create a very strong film.

 

Well worth a watch

 

6/10.