This has some really great fighting in it. It's not martial arts, though, it's war. Sword versus sword, arrow versus cover, siege ladder versus wall, and, when the Japanese Army arrives, suddenly, in the midst of this medieval style warfare, guns. The war scenes are stunning.
The main groups of characters are: the king and his advisers, the prince and his courtiers and regular soldiers, the Japanese invaders, and the proxy soldiers. Proxy soldiers are professional soldiers who make their living by doing other peoples' mandatory military service for them. Of course the people who pay are the rich and the ones who get paid are the poor, so the proxy soldiers have a lower status than regular soldiers. Some of them have a goal of becoming regular soldiers after their proxy terms, and the access to that career path is something officials manipulate them with.
This movie is subtitled in English, and when the Japanese characters are talking, also subtitled in Hangul. There are a ton of cultural details in this film that I would not have understood if my companion had not been whispering explanations to me. (We were 6 rows away from the nearest other people in the theater, so it wasn't disruptive.) For example, there was a point in the story where volunteer soldiers start to arrive to fight for the Prince. Some of them were wearing what looked like swastikas on their shirts. My companion explained those were monks who were like Shaolin monks but the local Korean variety. (The name sounded like Sherenji but I have no idea how to spell it.)
This is apparently based on a true story, which accounts for how confusingly byzantine the plot was. The reason I gave this a 9 instead of a 10 is because there were a few times I didn't really understand what was going on, and also because at the beginning I wasn't sure who I was supposed to be rooting for. That cleared up eventually, though. We are rooting for Tow, the proxy soldier who becomes the martial arts mentor to the young Crown Prince. Until the moment Tow starts instructing him, the Prince is pretty useless. Eventually we start to root for the Prince, too, as he grows into a good man, warrior, and king.
If you like movies about war, see it.
The main groups of characters are: the king and his advisers, the prince and his courtiers and regular soldiers, the Japanese invaders, and the proxy soldiers. Proxy soldiers are professional soldiers who make their living by doing other peoples' mandatory military service for them. Of course the people who pay are the rich and the ones who get paid are the poor, so the proxy soldiers have a lower status than regular soldiers. Some of them have a goal of becoming regular soldiers after their proxy terms, and the access to that career path is something officials manipulate them with.
This movie is subtitled in English, and when the Japanese characters are talking, also subtitled in Hangul. There are a ton of cultural details in this film that I would not have understood if my companion had not been whispering explanations to me. (We were 6 rows away from the nearest other people in the theater, so it wasn't disruptive.) For example, there was a point in the story where volunteer soldiers start to arrive to fight for the Prince. Some of them were wearing what looked like swastikas on their shirts. My companion explained those were monks who were like Shaolin monks but the local Korean variety. (The name sounded like Sherenji but I have no idea how to spell it.)
This is apparently based on a true story, which accounts for how confusingly byzantine the plot was. The reason I gave this a 9 instead of a 10 is because there were a few times I didn't really understand what was going on, and also because at the beginning I wasn't sure who I was supposed to be rooting for. That cleared up eventually, though. We are rooting for Tow, the proxy soldier who becomes the martial arts mentor to the young Crown Prince. Until the moment Tow starts instructing him, the Prince is pretty useless. Eventually we start to root for the Prince, too, as he grows into a good man, warrior, and king.
If you like movies about war, see it.