Welkkeom tu Dongmakgol

During the Korean war, soldiers on both sides find themselves in a mountain town where the villagers didn't even know that a conflict was being fought. The battle scenes are chaotic, brutal and intense, in the vein of Saving Private Ryan, with strong emotional impact following the humanity seen from everyone. We aren't led to believe that anyone is "evil", there is good and bad in everyone(yes, that goes for the American troops seen, as well). You really find yourself responding to the characters, recognizing traits and such. Do we like everyone? No, just like in real life. The FX are great with occasional exceptions(especially the CGI, I'm afraid... though it really isn't that big a part of this). This is well-acted, and I implore you to accept the subtitles. The realism is impeccable, and you can practically feel the pain and impact when a bullet hits. This is filmed and edited rather well. It keeps to a good pace, so the 133 minutes pass pretty smoothly. There is a moderate amount of bloody, violent and disturbing content in this. I recommend this to any fan of dramas. 8/10

Upon approaching this flick i was a tad sceptical - i knew with the cast, director and musical score covered nicely - there was no reason for it to be a let down, but i always find myself slightly dubious of war films. JSA was fantastic though so i gritted my teeth, held my breath and hoped for the best. Absolutely F'in glad i did, its such a well shot beautiful tale, the cinematography is highly original for the premise of a war film, the colours and dialogue were spot on and the actors all came correct. I found myself wishing that i could just F it all and go live in that cool village with that crazy girl for the rest of my days, ha ha. Thats not to say this film is completely void of any gritty (and sometimes gory) realism on the 'war' front but it just doesn't focus so much on the agony, more so on the individual and the reasons behind such atrocities. Its not a short film, but i found myself not wanting it to end. Some scenes in particular bring light relief and patch the whole thing up into a marvellous little epic. I highly highly recommend it to fans of beautiful cinema.

The tragedy of this film is that it's not playing in every theatre in the U.S. so it can be seen by the people who most need to see it. Thank you, Korean American friend of a friend who shared it with us.

See this film if you or someone care about is thinking about signing up to go into the military. See it if have been, or if you've ever known anyone who was, in a war. See it if you have ever seen a peace march - live or on television - and asked,"What's it all about?" See it if you love life.

Don't worry; it's not propaganda or any kind. It just takes us to the scene of the action, sets us down, then lets us get to know some very real people and watch what happens.

Carolfrances

Charming feel good story set during the Korean War. Hard to believe but true! The characters are easy to identify with, and draw you into the story. They are fairly believable, with the slight exception of the North Korean commander who seems perhaps too heroic. It verges on being trite or cheesy at times, idolizing the "quaint" village, but for the most part stays away from that. The film is even handed in its treatment of all sides in this war, other than perhaps the military command, as it is quite anti-war. There is a bit of violence and gore, so it isn't for young children. I would recommend this to anyone; go in expecting a fairly romanticized comedy and you shouldn't be disappointed.

Please excuse bad English, I am still learning :) This is excellent film but I think many Americans will dislike it because it shows American soldiers as "bad guys". In true war there is no "good guys". There is no John Wayne who is always right. This movie shows ugliness of war on all sides. But it is still very pleasant and happy movie to watch sometimes. It is not history lesson, it is fantasy. but still it tells truth about war which Hollywood has never done because Hollywood always shows good guys vs bad guys. Even though this is fantasy it is more real than any war movie I saw. I urge you see this movie regardless of what country you from. Pretend you take no sides. You will enjoy this movie.