THE GREAT BATTLE

                                       The Great Battle: Brutal, True and Creative
 

A historical film about the siege of Ansi Fortress and the epic eighty-eight day battle that Yang Man-chun and his Goguryeo troops fought against 500,000 invading Tang dynasty men to defend it.

As all Historical dramas go, this was not any different in delivering good euphoric and and exciting storytelling. The reason why perhaps most historical war dramas never win over the crowd with convincing numbers may be put down to the refusal to be creative about the storyline, the plot and the character depth. This aspect of the movie is perhaps where the writer and the director deserve some props. The movie was focused not only on the endgame of the battle, but much attention was paid to the battle simulation and conflict management. This is what most avid watchers of historical war drama are after, especially when it has to do with the Asian era of the warring states.

  The storyline in the movie was pretty basic at first, being the prevention of the invading Tang army, and then we quickly saw, as against most historical dramas that are told from a lopsided perspective, that the invading army had a more advanced battle strategy, and an even more cunning strategist leading it. Pit this almighty army against the last line of defence, Ansi Fortress with a mere 5,000 soldiers defending it, and you have on your hand a story capable of being told to amazing results, and capable of delivering individual combat brilliance reminiscent of Bang Rajan or Musa The Warrior, and it accordingly did deliver.
  Surprisingly, and against popular convention, the writer invested a whole lot of efforts in character development. First of all developing the principal antagonist ,before venturing into the character development of the protagonists. Though we are forced to admit that some characters did not have enough screen time to warrant the epic endings they were accorded, but we can say for sure that what they didn't enjoy in terms of screen time was ably compensated for by their combat scenes, choreography and overall aesthetic brilliance.

   This is a movie that ought not be beautiful, but which albeit came off as very brutally beautiful and honest to a fault. The makeup team and the costumiers deserve huge compliments for their euphoric presentation of character,  while the sound mixing team ensured that every axe swing, sword slash and every arrow flight was accompanied by the appropriate piece of soundtrack.
  Recall our judgement of the simplicity of the story? The conflict element is everything but simple. The way the script writer has been able to carve out a compelling conflict from the otherwise simple and straight story is brilliant and beautiful. It also ensured that the plot theme element was unpredictable and not easily read. I have always found diversification of conflict and multiplicity of conflict points to be very interesting, and here again it proved true. The movie could have swung any way or the end game achieved in a number of ways. This is testament to creative ingenuity. It's good stuff and everyone deserves to be treated to this type of brutal, beautiful and mind blowing war drama once in a while.
  The acting itself is not one that we can praise for being overly brilliant or abysmal. It's a perfect mix of good and average. But it's positive grades for the acting.

We must further mention that the conclusion to the conflict was astounding and rivetting. In fact some critics have called it 'wicked' and mind boggling. I thought I was watching a tragedy in the making, good lord, I totally got something bone chilling and goosebumps inducing. Amazing work of art!!

 

Directed by Kim Kwang-sik
Produced by Kim Woo-taek, Jang Kyung-ik, Park Jae-soo, Mo Chong-jin
Screenplay by Kim Kwang-sik
Starring
Jo In-sung
Nam Joo-hyuk
Park Sung-woong
Music by Yoon Il-sang
Cinematography :Nam Dong-geun
Edited by Kim Chang-joo
Production company: Soojak Film Studio&NEW
Distributed by: Next Entertainment World.

For its aesthetics, it's brutality and it's honesty and loyalty to its roots with enough room left for creativity and maneuverability,  we recommend this movie for lovers of hardcore war drama with its source materials rooted deep in history.

FCA's AppR: 7.3/10