The Battleship Island

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.

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.

A very harrowing tale based on true story of what took place during world war II on that island. It is heartbreaking and, at times gut wrenching, to watch. Although this movie has a lot of blockbuster appeal for on screen dramatics, it does capture the horrors of war and remembering what happened on that island. This is only a small part of the atrocities that occurred during world war II, but it is one that should be remembered.

For those wanting to continue with other films, here are some recommendations: Flowers of War, City of Life and Death, Unbroken...to name a few.

Brilliant but chilling film based on a true WW2 story. It's horrific what happened to the Koreans on this Battleship Island, where they were forced into slave labour by the Japanese. The film casts light on a hidden part of WW2.

Emotionally gripping for me to watch this because I tend to be overwhelmed by what happened to the characters in war-plot movie. The casts were all great and wonderful in their roles, each bringing out one another's best aspects and molded their chemistry throughout the journey in this movie. There were various themes on humanity being touched and carried on as the key to this movie while you are brought into an existential reflection of what if you are part of it in that war-era period, what would you have done to stay alive and what would you have chose to do. Watch this movie without getting too hung up on the political facts but more on being in the shoes of those who had to plough their way for survival. I also like the cinematography of the scenes when everyone trying to escape and working together towards it although I must say the ways certain gun shots shown just a bit hard to comprehend how certain people so easily died while certain just survived.