Memories of War

September 1950. UN forces under General Douglas MacArthur are poised to invade and retake South Korea at the port city of Incheon. However, the operation, Operation Chromite, is fraught with risks and has a high probability of failure. In order to gain more intelligence on enemy positions, especially the placement of sea mines, MacArthur sends a team of eight Korean spies into Incheon. This is their story.

So-so. Had potential to be a gritty war drama, telling the story of the Battle of Incheon, which was a stroke of military genius. Instead it is a fairly conventional, gung ho war movie. Historical and military accuracy, and general plausibility, is sacrificed at the expense of action scenes, melodrama and empty sentimentality.

Dialogue is generally over-the-top and quite ridiculous at times. Every kind of cliché you can think of, MacArthur (played by the unfortunate Liam Neeson) gets to utter. Add in a character whose sole job seems to be calling out the names of comrades as they get hit and otherwise being sullen and whiny, and some pretty hammy acting and you have a recipe for a pretty average movie, at best.

A teenagers approach to an historic episode, that deserves an adult director. It's a miracle that main characters survives until the end of the film, among the bullet's rain, and the flood of casulaties. It's a pity that Indiana Jones, Rambo and Captain American were busy to go on help.

As of late, it seems every country with a nationalistic concerns, has been turning out war films with what I'd call, "patriotic" overtones.

Operation Chromite offers up a South Korean/US take on the Korea war. There's a good back story, complimented by decent acting, directing and lots of well paced, polished action.

That said, I'd describe this film as also a bit simplistic in its approach. The North are, for the most part, the "bad guys" in a very black and white way and the Southern solders, the "good guys".

If you can accept these limitations, this war film remains a mostly enjoyable watch. Seven out of ten from me.

This South Korean war epic/action movie does get a marginal recommendation from me, being that it's not boring and it does contain some good action and some excitement. But at the same time, the movie is clearly being held back from maximum impact due to some significant flaws. For starters, there are the production values. While the movie was big budget by Korean standards, and indeed some shots look very nice, all the same there are many moments where the movie does not have enough "oompth" to its look, giving the movie a restrained feeling. Also, linking footage and entire scenes seem to be missing at times. A bigger problem, however, is the script. The script is severely underwritten at times, most notably being the heroes who set out on the mission. The heroes are poorly introduced, and we learn next to nothing about them. Also, the storyline has a lot of predictability to it; you'll have seen many moments in this movie in other war movies before. Another problem is that the English language dialogue often sounds very stilted and awful. This may be why actor Liam Neeson seems to be hamming it up at times. I realize I may be portraying this movie to be worse than it really is, so let me say again that while the movie could have been better, it is an acceptable time-waster. And it's a heck of a lot better than the 1982 movie "Inchon".

Operation Chromite Viewed in Koreatown, Los Angeles, Sunday August 14, 2016.. image1.png

Directed by Lee Jae-Han. Starring Liam Neeson as General Douglas MacArthur and Jung-Jae Lee as the leader of a nearly suicidal undercover mission behind North Korean lines at the peak of the Korean War. Operation Chromite --(original Korean title, 인천상륙작전; 仁川上陸作戰;Incheon Sangnyuk Jae-jeon) is a 2016 South Korean war drama blockbuster directed by John H. Lee and based on actual events leading up to the decisive Invasion of Inchon led by MacArthur in 1950. which turned the tide of the war after initial North Korean successes.

"Operation Chromite" was the real life code-name of a secret operation whose purpose was to infiltrate the North Korean defenses at Inchon and clear the way for MacArthur's surprise attack from the sea. Handsome charismatic actor Jung-jae Lee is the leader of an eight man squad disguised as North Koreans who infiltrate North Korean HQ in Inchon to find out where the mine fields are that would block a naval incursion. In actual fact MacArthur's surprise move far behind enemy lines resulted in the recapture of Seoul and the turning of the tide in the darkest early days of the Korean War when American and South Korean forces had been pushed back to a mere toe-hold in the so- called Pusan Perimeter. Neeson's portrayal of MacArthur is such a caricature it's almost a joke, however the principal Korean actor's, hero Jung-jae Lee and villainous North Korean commander Bum- soo Lee, are quite convincing and keep the suspense at a peak throughout. With director "John H." Lee this might be called the Picture of the Three Lees.

Overall a rousing historical war film with lots of shootouts and suspense ~ money's worth "time pass" if nothing else. Lead actor Jung Jae Lee was a discovery and I will look for more of his films. MacArthur was previously portrayed by Gregory Peck in the 1977 biopic entitled "MacArthur" and by Sir Lawrence Olivier in the 1981 Reverend Moon (Unity Church) funded monstrosity entitled "Inchon", described as "a noisy and absurd re-telling of the great 1950 invasion of Inchon during the Korean War" on IMDb and a high ranker on many Worst film of All Time lists. Operation Chromite is basically a Korean Flag waver similar to WW II Hollywood films which were designed to promote civilian morale on the home front against the Axis enemies. What is significant here is that this is not just an historical film to remind people about a war that took place over sixty years ago but also an alert to the ongoing hostility of North Korea even today. Not to forget that a peace treaty was never signed between the two Koreas and that Nuclear armed North Korea continues to rattle the Sabres daily in northeast Asia, even threatening the USA and Japan with possible nuclear attacks.

North Korea has described the film as "ridiculous bravado from ignorant lunatics" -- only to be expected from this insane corner of the world. Op Chromite was released in Korea on July 27, 2016 and is already the big hit of the year in Korea. It may not make waves at festivals but it's not at all bad and is worth checking out.