Memories of War

Good story portraying the cruelty of this war and Liam Neeson plays his role well but the rest is absolutely ruined by ignorant American dubbing.

The dubbing completely removes the immersion as the director / voice actors show complete ignorance to any Asian culture and the complete inability to pick up on subtleties (A characteristic of American dubbing that is well known to anyone who watches Asian cinema or anime). The result is the terrible voice actors cannot correctly portray any atmosphere.

If you can handle that, or can find the original, subtitled, then the film is worth a watch.

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".

In 1950, the North Korean army has invaded and defeated South Korea. The UN coalition, under the command of General Douglas MacArthur (Liam Neeson), plots a bold plan called "Operation Chromite" to invade the South Korean peninsula, disembarking the troops through the Incheon port. However there are mines in the water and he needs to know the location of the defense first. MacArthur sends an eight- man military unit from the Korean Liaison Office in a secret operation called X- Ray under the command of South Korean Navy Lieutenant Jang Hak-soo (Jung-jae Lee) to find the location of the North Korean defenses. They disguise as a North Korean inspection unit to infiltrate the enemy headquarter. However, North Korean Senior Colonel Lim Gye-jin (Beom- su Lee) suspects of Hak-soo and does not provide the mine location to him. What will the spies do?

"In-cheon sang-ryuk jak-jeon", a.k.a. "Operation Chromite", is a magnificent South Korean war film based on a true story. The dramatic story is full of action and supported by excellent screenplay, direction and performances. The conclusion is melodramatic like in many other South Korean movies, but perfect to the great story of heroism and patriotism. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): Not available

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.

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.