Shin-gi-jeon

It's a hard movie to review. It doesn't seem like it would be a romantic comedy/melodrama/martial arts/swordplay film when all summaries seem to describe it as a historical epic. Since it is a mess of a movie, I'll keep it simple.

Good: Solid Action, Great Climax, Good Actors, Good SFX, Decently Paced, Decent Costume Design, Good Plot

Bad: Not Enough Action, A Genre Mess, Overlong, Poor script leads to overacting, Poor editing and iffy direction/cinematography, Overdone SFX at Climax, Kind of Dull and Unorganized, Inconsistent Production Values, Messy Love story and lack of character development overshadow plot.

It's worth a watch, it could be a lot worse, but it is also not the best Korean movie you could watch this year.

DIVINE WEAPON aims to ride the wave of historical epics that have currently been taking Asia by storm over the last decade; you know the ones, invariably involving the likes of Andy Lau and a cast of CGI-augmented thousands battling over the fate of kingdoms. This is the second Korean take on the genre I've seen recently, after the inventive LEGEND OF THE SHADOWLESS SWORD, but it's not as good as that movie. In fact, it's quite boring, an ultra-slow moving tale (glacial would be a better descriptor) of courtly intrigue and rebellion.

The idea of a top-secret and, for the time, futuristic, weapon is a good one, but little is done with the premise. In a bid to whip life into the flagging main body of his picture, director Yoo-jin Kim paces out a series of fight scenes in WELCOME TO DONGMAKGOL's Jae-yeong Jeong battles various opponents with his mighty blade, but the choreography is fumbled and the insistence on filming such sequences in half-light to hide any inconsistencies, either technical or physical, is a poor one.

In fact, action fans are only served by a climactic battle which is good, if cheesy, fun, although it comes too little too late, sadly. Until that point, there's tiresome romance, the usual Korean concerns with 'evil' foreign powers (China bears the brunt of its hatred this time around) and more sitting around and talking than you can shake a stick at. Yeah, it's definitely one to avoid

Set in the middle of the fifteenth century tensions are high between the Kingdom of Korea and the more powerful Chinese Empire with the latter trying to dominate the former. The Koreans have secretly developed a new weapon but Chinese agents have found out and stolen the calculations required to develop the weapons. The Inventor is killed but his daughter escapes and helps continue the work on the weapons. There are many difficulties in the development; they must get the ingredients to make the gun powder and they still need the calculations. Inevitably the two sides will eventually meet in battle and the new weapons will finally be tested.

While this might not be historically accurate that didn't affect my enjoyment of the film... perhaps because I don't know much about Korean history. The story is interesting with plenty of exciting moments leading up to a fairly spectacular final battle. As well as some impressive close quarters fighting we see two fearsome weapons deployed; one that uses rockets to fire hundreds of arrows and great range and a the second, a missile with considerable explosive force. The characters are interesting and while we do get an inevitable romance it doesn't detract from the main story. The cast does a good job bringing their characters to life. Overall I'd recommend this to fans of far-eastern action in an historical setting... especially if you want realistic action rather than the highly choreographed, super-human fighting that features in many films.

These comments are based on watching the film in Korean with English subtitles.

Shin ge jeon includes all that i am looking for at a historical epic Asian movie.

Greate costumes, evil generals, a lot of sword fight, a hero and a few interesting historical details. Also of course great landscape pictures and battle scenes with fire and explosions :).

It is for sure not the best Asian movie ever. And there is no compare with high end martial arts movies like Tiger and Dragon or Hero.

All fighting scenes are made more realistic then in the most other movies from that genre. If you like to see warriors flying all the time and a hero who can kill 100 men with a stick in less then a minute, then this is the wrong movie for you.

If you like historical Asian movies in the stile of "a small country is trying to defend it self against an empire" then you surly will enjoy it.

The movie includes a bit to much different characters. At the end of the movie i lost it completely who were all that guys which are died with great heroism :).

Also the love story, which seems to be essential in such movies, was not as disturbing as normal.

This was a entertaining movie from beginning to end and is like the movie "300" but with a more captivating plot. Not being racist but I noticed that a lot of Chinese turn a blind eye and tries to bash on this movie by turning a blind eye. But most historical movies from china is far from being historically accurate and goes in more of the video game directions, especially movies about the seven kingdoms. Especially the fight sequences with men and sometimes women doing crazy stunts to dodge arrows and jumping almost 10 feet in the air to strike a enemy. Truth is china did try to suppress Korea and Koreans created weapons advanced at the time to fight back. Now some scenes in the movie probably didn't happen the way it did, but what historical movie is 100% accurate? I found how Chinese bash on this film in a unfair manner, while turning a blind eye on there super historically inaccurate movies and glorify it while trying to bash on a film that is more accurate than most historical Chinese films. Sure I can understand how it tries to make it more entertaining for the viewers but far from being accurate in most cases. The action is fun to watch and the pacing of this film is well done and you actually care for the characters that is trying to fight for independence. If you want to see one guy fighting 100 at once or people flying in the the air like some movies you might be disappointed. I enjoyed this film though and I highly recommend other Asian movie lovers to check it out as well. I like Chinese movies, but is annoyed by some ignorant critics. Kinda like how some Persians threw a hissy fit about the movie "300", except this film is not based on a comic book.

7.7/10