Friday 6 November 2015

[REVIEW] Northern Limit Line

Northern Limit Line (South Korea, 2015)



Title: 연평해전
Also known as: NLL-Battle of Yeonpyeong

Genre: Action, Military, War
Release Date: Jun 24, 2015




Battle of Yeonpyeong is about the battle between South Korean and North Korean patrol frigates that took place in 2002. It is a story of young soldiers who demonstrates courage and responsibility for the Republic of Korea. - Mydramalist


Overall Score: 10/10
Character Development: 9/10
Plot Development: 10/10

Acting: 10/10
Soundtrack: 9/10





So, I saw the movie poster, recognised Lee Hyun Woo's face, briefly checked out the synopsis and decided to give it a try. The result - I think I probably shed a good monthly dosis of tears while making dying whale-sounds during the entire movie. "So...was it good?" you may ask. Answer: Hell yes! IT WAS AWESOME! But when I say awesome, I don't mean it was enjoyable. It wasn't. Unless you're a sadist, you shouldn't find joy in seeing bodyparts be blown off left and right in front of your face and people screaming and crying while they're sitting drenched in cold blood. "So....what do you mean then?" you may ask. The execution. I love how this movie was made, how the scenes, the characters, how everything was portrayed. It felt real, the characters were alive, the music, the scenography was stunning, it was sad, it was traumatizing and yet it made you feel all the right feelings the director wanted you to feel while watching this movie. This is a tragic, heartbreaking story and that's also how it was portrayed. It's based off of a true story which happeend as mentioned above in 2002, and I love how we got constantly reminded of that as they threw in photos and video scenes from the real event, which only added to that strong emotionally heartbreaking feeling, the same feeling you get when something hits you hard in the face and you're like "oh god, this for real o_o". They even put in interviews and other little videos of the people who survived. All of this really prooves to me that this is not just a movie. It's not just a simple war- tragedy movie. It's a memoir in honor of the heros who died sacrificing their lives for their country. And because it's a memoir and not your everyday action-war movie, I really think that this is something that everyone should watch. You won't enjoy it, this movie will probably leave you a complete wreck for a good few hours afterwards, it'll make you question humanity, it'll make wonder why the world is so damn cruel, and yet, you'll feel grateful that you watched this. Because things like these shouldn't be ignored. No matter how devestating and sad one may feel about this, the people in that warship who died on that day need to be remembered. Especially if you're like me, a European-born 90's kid who had no idea something like this even happened. Of course, we can't keep up with everything in the world, tragedies occure all the time, all around the world, but if movies like these are made, good movies, the production was amazing, this was definitely a high budget movie, why should we ignore them? I think these movies are needed in the world to remind people of the past, to not forget the sacrifices made and also to learn from them, to not make the same mistakes or to be more prepared so these kind of tragedies can be avoided or at least minimized.


Now, I don't really know much about the Korea War, honestly it's not my comfort zone and I don't really like to go into too much detail about things I'm not too certain about, so I won't talk much about the real event or question the authenticity of its portrayal, and focus more on the execution of the movie.

The plot and the characters:
So it's about a couple of young marine soldiers and one of them, I'm guessing the main character is Park Dong Hyuk, a newly recruited medic and we follow them as they do their daily duty on the watch-ship that sails close to the Northern Limit Line which works as the border between the North and the South. I really liked how you got a good close contact with most of the main characters, the scenes switched between their work and their private life with their friends and families and you just got a really good grip around their all-around personality and life (which only made the latter half of the movie even more tragic). The director really set up a good sense of unity among the navy soldiers, they watched the TV together, they laughed, they cried, they sweat together, they really had a close bond like brother and I feel like that was needed for you to turly feel all the emotions both during those scenes and later on. Despite this movie portraying an uttermost tragedy, it still had that cheerful almost comedic feel to it which I feel was really needed (at least for me, otherwise I would've probably gone depressed and not even be able to write this review right now). I really liked the character of Han Sang Kook, he was such an all-around amazing person. He was a strongminded man, a dedicated soldier, a true friend and honestly MARK TO SEE SPOILER while all the deaths in this movie hit you really hard, his death, the way how he went down with the ship and despite all his wounds he still held on to the steering wheel no matter what...that was deep. So so deep. I mean, you know that moment when you know that everyone's is probably going to die, obviously since this is a war movie I knew I'd be lying to myself if I expected this to have a happy ending, but that death, Han Sang Kook's death, blew my mind. It wasn't anything thatI'd prepared myself for. I didn't see that coming and it was beautiful, it was tragically beautiful. He died a true dedicated man, a true warrior, a true hero. END OF SPOILER. I don't know how else to explain that situation other than that it was symbolic and just tragically beautiful. Yoon Young Ha and Park Dong Hyuk, were probably my second favorite characters. I truly admired Yoon Young Ha's dedication and willpower to keep on going no matter what. He was a very mentally strong man and that one scene when he was MARK TO SEE SPOILER bleeding all over the floor but still kept giving out orders...woah.... END OF SPOILER my jaw dropped to the ground. Park Dong Hyuk, was kind of he newbie, the guy who entered the crew last and kind of struggled to get into that bromance but then grew very tight with the others. I really liked that we kind of followed the story together with him. He was kind of like the guide. I almost wished we wouldn't been able to be a bit inside his head and hear his thoughts, perhaps see the story through his point of view and let him explain or tell us some of the details about it. MARK TO SEE SPOILER of course it wouldn't tecnically be the full movie since he does die later on, but since he kind of die at the end, it would still have worked. I think it would've helped to connect to him even more END OF SPOILER. But, that would've just been an extra plus to the already awesome movie so I can't really saw that the movie lacked that. It's just something that would've made it even better.

The OST and the acting:
I don't really have anything bad to say about this movie. It very well executed. Like I mentioned above the way it was filmed was stunning, the ost set the right emotions and the acting was superb. Lee Hyun Woo, I haven't seen much of his other stuff, but in this one I think he did an amazing job. Actually, every actor in this movie did their parts perfectly. I don't think this movie would've been nearly as good if it weren't for them. They were great picks and yeah -applause-.


Overall:
Like I mentioned above, even if you don't like war movies this is a must-watch. Especially since it's so close to our time, and if people don't watch this they might just brush it aside and create the same mistakes or let the same incident happen all over again. This is a lesson and a good memoir to honor the ones who died protecting the people and the things they love.

So yeah, I hope this review was inspiring and interesting, watch this movie, it is truly a eye-opener! Not to mention that this movie was according to statistics "the most watched Korean film in 2015 thus far" (august-2015).
 

No comments:

Post a Comment