Gunhamdo

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.

While having seen many Hollywood True Historic event based movies, this was the first Korean movie that I have seen ever. So Ji-Sub from "Oh My Venus" fame and Song Joong-ki from "Descendents of the Sun" fame, are the two actors who brought me to this point, leading to "The Battleship Island". And their performance has been really great. The direction is quite good, leaving very few logical loopholes and the movie captures your constant attention. While within Korea and Japan most of the people would be aware of such an incident, people like us truly have no idea about such events even happening. And while it is a hair-raisingly tragic affair, I am thankful for making this movie available worldwide and enjoyed the narration and acting overall. P.S. The child artist is amazing as well ! Kim Su-An. A must watch for fans of either Korean Movies or the above mentioned actors!

A Japanese island, 9 miles from Nagasaki, enlarged & used from 1897 to 1974 to mine coal w/shafts going down 2/3 of a mile beneath the sea. Oddly, given the Pacific rim geologic history of subduction, that there's massive sedimentary (typically surface heavily vegetated wetlands) deposits of coal forming there. It's common name is Gunkanjima, meaning battle ship. The actual name is Hashima Island. From the '30s to the end of WWII Chinese & Korean conscripts/prisoners numbering in the thousands worked those mine shafts w/80+ temps & 95% humidity & some might say brutal treatment. During that time period an estimated 1300 miners died.

The movie mixes factual & fictionalized events. Kudos goes to the production of one of the best movie sets/props I've ever seen (actually built in Chuncheon, Korea) - Game of Thrones level. Also to the costuming & makeup personnel for the grimy authenticity & cinematography for the great camera work. Acting was spot-on although as is typical in these types of films the baddies (the Japanese in this case) are made to be really bad dudes. Forewarned - lots of violence, especially towards the end.

From all the Asian countries Korea has the best movies. I don't know why that is, but it's just a fact. I saw enough Asian movies by now to come to that conclusion. Gun-Ham-Do is certainly not the best Korean movie I ever watched but it's well made and worth a watch. As usual it's very loud verbally, like almost all Asian movies. I don't know why but they seem angry all the time when they talk. In this movie they could be though as it is a war movie about Hashima Island, more a concentration camp than a work environment if you ask me. There are some really good battle scenes, especially at the end. It clearly shows they put some effort in this movie. I wouldn't say all the actors are great actors, because for that some extras looked too fake in their expressions, and that's the case for most Asian movies. It seems they like to exaggerate a bit. And for that I score this movie lower. The story is interesting though, with good visual effects. If you like Korean movies give this one a shot.

The film moved at a fast pace.

Some great performances . I hope the young girl won some awards- she deserved them.