Nambugun

I was pleasantly surprised about this wonderfully crafted movie. It guides the viewer to "the other side" of the korean war, to the communist side. Western viewers like me, with an European background west of the iron curtain, know almost nothing about. When this side was portrait in Hollywood or early korean war movies, it was dehumanized. Now this movie shows an entirely new angle, where ordinary citizens get drawn to the communist site for all kind of different reasons, and from all walks of life. From the practical decission to the ideological one, from the workrelated one to the adventures one, for love or for revenge. All this is seen from the biographical view of a journalist who lived, and suffered through this experience. By watching this movie you feel the approach of emotional pain, by knowing that some of the wonderful human bonds created, will end with tragedy. The war movie action fan will also find this movie packed with realistic and well researched combat scenes. I was truly impressed about every aspect in this movie. Now this is the story: The American forces under McArthur land in Inchon, the communist front in southern Korea crumbles. Civil proffessionals are being ordered by the communist leaders, to join the partisans in the mountains. Whole bands of partisans have very little experience, when they meet the regular korean army in pitched battles. Mostly being defeated, they suffer under unbearable conditions. When the Chinese army enters the war, new hope and optimism arrives, giving new live to the battered spirits. Ordinary communist leaders committing reasonable decissions among some atrocities. It paints a very threedimensional picture about their movement, without a final judgement. That is very impressive. For a moviemaker, this takes guts to do. No sour note on morals in this movie. This is also a movie that portraits female soldiers in battle, in ways rarely seen in other war movies. This is the best korean war movie I have ever seen, it even outclasses my favorite up to date Tae Guk Gi.

Reporter for a North Korean news service joins the partisans when the Americans and UN forces invade South Korea. The course of the film chronicles his journey through the war.

I picked this DVD up pretty much blind in New York's Chinatown. The only thing I could read on the package was that it came subtitled in English. The picture on the box was of our hero trying to kill himself with a rifle. Other than that I knew nothing about the film when I started it.

Neither a good film nor a bad film this was more or less a standard, though over long, war film from a different point of view, namely the North Korean. Not a propaganda piece, the film simply shows war from what many would consider the other side of the line. Large scale to be sure the film is much too polished and perfect in a completely artificial way, no ones clothes are really ragged, there is no dirt and some of the battle scenes have lines that are so neat and pretty even the most polished Hollywood film would blush. To me much of it comes off as silly TV movie.

Allowing the film most of its flaws, the one that makes me not want to recommend the film is that its much too long. The film seems to keep going and going much like the Energized Bunny in TV commercials. I didn't really see the point after awhile, to be sure it covers most of the events of the war and gets the point of its despair across, but at the same time I don't think it needed to be over two and a half hours long.

War film fans or those interested in Korean cinema may want to give it a try, others may want to give it a pass.

4 out of 10 (should be a 5 but its too long)

I watched this, because as a long time fan of Im Chang Jung, I know that this is the film where he debut and started his acting career. I was surprised to find that he had a pretty substantial role. (those of you who are interested in how he joined the film, you can watch a clip about it on youtube by searching his name and the movie name).

You will also find other famous actors like Choi jin sil (RIP) and Cho hyung gi.

I knew of the korean was history, but this movie helped me piece together the tidbits of knowledge i knew. I didn't learn much about the Partisan (btw i did not know that BBAL-CHI-SAN meant partisan) in school, and now I have a more nuanced understanding of the war. The written text on the last scene really resonated with how i felt.

It tells a much need to know side of previously unknown events (to the vast majority of the worlds peoples for the last 70 years) but, it took too long to tell it. 1:45-1:50 minutes would have been more than enough to get this persons real life experience over to the viewer.

Well filmed and extremely well acted, by everybody, it is also a very sad film to watch. Its long drawn out telling of the story is the only drab thing about the film (and there are times when you almost hitting boredom but are saved by a sudden move on to the next part) but it certainly drives home the BS that American films have given to the era!

A piece of very interesting history to do with a country that is only known to today's youth for its K-POP industry and tech things.