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.

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.

I would enjoy this movie if the director could did some homework on history.

1. The costume of the Chinese officers and solders are very strange, it is a mixture of China in Yuan dynasty (Mongolian style), Ming dynasty, and Qing dynasty (Manchurian style). Ironically the Koreans (mostly man) in this movie are dressed in the costume of China in Ming Dynasty, which is correct because they learnt it from China.

2. In Ming dynasty, the kingdom of Korea was under sovereign of China. The emperor o China declared Korea as a kingdom which China would never fight with. Actually, in 16 century, Japan invaded Korea and it was China helped them to win the war. This war cost the Ming dynasty a lot which was one of the reasons of its fall. And after its fall into Qing dynasty, the kingdom of Korea was still loyal to Ming and kept using the era name of the last emperor of Ming internally till 19 century… 3. Gunpowder was invented in China and already equipped in the army as early as in 11 century. In Ming dynasty they even had an army equipped with guns and cannons, which was called Divine Engine Division (Shen Ji (Shin Ge) Ying, the first two characters are same as this movie's title, and the last one means division). It's hard to believe they didn't show any of this in this movie.

I could understand Korea proud of their nation and achievement, but this should not be based on screwed history.

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.

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