The only "fact" in the film was that a Korean wearing a German uniform was captured by the Allies in the Normandy landings. From that, however, the scriptwriter invented a story much of which was neither historically accurate nor plausible in terms of plot and characterization. The viewer should have received the warning when the film started off identifying the date of D-Day as June 6, 1945 (instead of 1944). That such a mistake was made did not lend much confidence to the historical accuracy elsewhere in the film.
To me, since the filmmakers were prepared to throw a lot of money into a film with big battle scenes in at least three different parts of the word, it seemed rather ill-advised to focus the plot rather narrowly on the relationship of two characters. The film could have got much greater publicity and acceptance by viewers if the script was written such that the central subject matter is of interest to a wider audience.
In the film, the "Korean" captured at the end was actually a Japanese. The film looked like a mix of Saving Private Ryan with The Duellists with Chariots of fire. The story of the relationship between the two soldiers was not really convincing and at times totally unbelievable.
Tatsuo in the film was fiercely loyal to the Emperor and acted like a maniac who cared nothing about the lives of his men. He looked upon Koreans as lower forms of life, and did everything to make Jun Shik's life miserable. He sent Jun Shik on a suicide attack, watched him sent before a firing squad, and even tried to kill him in a knife-fight. In another war film, Tatsuo would be the stereotype Japanese officer torturing prisoners of war and murdering innocent women and children. Jun Shik also hated the Japanese and had a grudge against Tatsuo in particular. Yet after they escaped and later were reunited on the Normandy beaches, they suddenly appeared to be the greatest of friends. Why was Jun Shik still so loyal to Japan after all that and even saved Tatsuo’s life? The sudden friendship between them was unconvincing and that greatly weakened the impact of the story's resolution. The idea of Tatsuo participating in the Olympics under Jun Shik’s name was particularly ridiculous.
The battle scenes were generally good but some parts lacked credulity – like the way the Japanese conducted their suicide attack against Russian tanks. It was also totally unbelievable that no matter what labor camp Jun Shik was forced into, he always had enough freedom to practice his marathon runs! Also, what snow-covered mountains did they climb to escape to the German side? They looked like the Alps but the geography was certainly wrong.
reply
share