IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

SchmoCro The true story, directed by John H. Lee (A Moment to Remember) about South Korean student unit of 71 soldiers who was left to defend the girls middle school during the Battle of Pohang during the peek of North Korea's invasion of South in 1950. That 71 students defended that position for 11 hours against a North Korean army brigade and the film was inspired by the letters of one of that soldiers. Out of 71 members of the unit, only three had combat experience, while others have not undergone any training before the battle, which makes their resistance unbelievable.The story focuses on two soldiers, Oh Jung-Bum, frightened and lost commander of the unit who only got the position because of his experience that was minimal, and Ku Kap-Jo, convicted of murder who enlisted in the Army to avoid jail. A good part of the story rests on their conflict and on development of their relationship as well as their relationship with the rest of the unit. Character development is uncommonly done. Oh Jung-Bum changes from a scared kid who couldn't even shot from the gun to brave commander absurdly fast, while Ku Kap-Jo's path is approximately opposite and just as fast, if not faster. In this context, we can mention the North Korean captain Park Mu-Rang which is extremely difficult to characterize as he's almost like another character in almost every scene, while only he's egotism stays.Performance is standard Asian, full of melodrama, highlighting the pride and courage, and a somewhat caricature acting that is pretty solid here. Cha Seung-won is far form being brilliant in lead role of Oh Jung-Bum, almost completely without emotions, as if he was forced to act in this movie. The rest of the acting team did a solid job. The pace of storytelling is perfect, not one scene is redundant, although movie could work without humorous parts they deliver, alongside humor, additional characterization of the characters. It's a simple, dynamic story with which time goes by quickly. There's no objections to the visual part of the film. A solid budget of 10mil dollars was well used, the effects look almost authentic. Final battle looks really impressive, although it can not be overlooked that it was somewhat idealized.Film lacks historical context which is not surprising given that, as usually happens with Far Eastern cinema, it's made for their market so they didn't feel like it's necessarily to explain situation, but however, it does not affect much on the experience of the film since the theme is universal, and 71: Into the Fire is one of the better war movies lately.

zardoz-37 Possible SpoilersThe film makers copied the look and feel of "Saving Private Ryan"...but, action wise, it has far more in common with "Wind Talkers" or "Miracle at St. Anna" then "SPR" or "Band of Brothers". Their is lots of shooting, violence and gore in this movie, but that doesn't make this a realistic war movie, its just a bloody movie. Nothing bothers me more then watching a soldier run through hundreds of missed shots and exploding grenades, as the "hero" skillfully shoots the "battle hardened" (but apparently incompetent) enemy to pieces.Their are so many aspects of this film that make decent drama, but are defiantly NOT realistic or historical. An example; 70 student soldiers, each one of these (untrained) students is armed with a Garand rifle and 250 rounds...these boys manage to hold off, and kill a thousand battle hardened North Korean soldiers. Well, I say they killed thousands of soldiers because they sort of disappeared all of the sudden. One minute you see them marching up to the school...and 10 minutes later the North Korean General is facing "our hero" alone on the rooftop.Anyway...if you want to enjoy a war drama, go for it. BUT if your looking for a realistic war movie...walk away.

natalie_twins87 The movie is great because they did not try to make it huge: it was just telling a simple story about 71 young student learning and struggling in the real war. The main actor: Choi Seung Hyeon (who is also known as TOP in Big Bang) did a great job. He acts impressively with his eyes, showing us how a student knowing nothing becomes to get to fight, to kill for the sake of his own team. Other actors did not show the best of them, especially Kwon Sang Woo. He could do better than that, but I feel that the character he played was not fully described. The music was not very impressive to me, however the effect was quite real and well-done for a Asian war movie. Since this is based on a true story, the end can easily be predicted, but that does not mean it was a boring end. They show us how people die in war: they may have different backgrounds but still can become real soldier once needed.

nick-zieminski It's not bad. It's not great. From the few English-language comments about 71, one can piece together that it's a movie vehicle for local teen heartthrobs, kind of like casting the Jonas Brothers in a recreation of The Alamo or the Tet Offensive. There's even a short, bittersweet dance sequence before the final slaughter, as the unprepared volunteer soldiers await the attack by North Korean troops. I'm sure it's meant as a wink to the actors' fans but it plays just fine on a dramatic level, not least because it's brief.The movie seems to have had a good budget for a Korean actioner, with support from the military. It's shot with very narrow depth of field, a choice that may seem unnatural for a panoramic war movie but heightens the shock and subjectivity of the experience for the teenage heroes, who are in way over their head from the get-go. There are two superb sequences. One is a chase through the woods, as the south Koreans chase a North Korean sniper, who's been sent to draw them out. They follow him into a wheat field where "the commies" are nestled, camouflaged a la Tom Berenger in Sniper. The inevitable firefight doesn't go where you'd expect it to and adds to the tension between the young captain who leads the student soldiers and the cocky thief who's been dumped on their squad.The second great sequence follows soon after. The top North Korean drives straight into the enemy's compound, white flag waving, and undermines the hero's credibility with a simple offer: surrender and we'll let you live. The surrender scene is a combat trope par excellence, but here it's handled with such slow Leone-style build-up and centered on a terrific performance that it's elevated into something special. It takes a good two minutes for the white-clad North Korean just to get out of his Jeep, wipe the dust off his boot and condescendingly shove a useless prisoner back into the ranks, before he even opens his mouth. As the scene wears on, it becomes clear the hero will have a mutiny on his hands. Good stuff.The movie is nuanced toward the North, as the southern heroes repeatedly discover the humanity of their enemy. Eastwood did something similar with his pair of Iwo Jima movies and I don't know enough about Korean culture to say whether this signifies changing attitudes toward the North.The final battle, some 20 minutes worth of wanton slaughter and deeply saturated pyrotechnics, using a wide variety of period hardware, is notable for its use of physical stunts and squibs and for its clear delineation of the space it takes place in, something a lot of action movie makers have lately forgotten. What it lacks utterly is suspense because the movie makers have already shown us that reinforcements are coming and the heroes' fate is already etched in history. To quote Josey Wales, "If things look bad, and it looks like you're not gonna make it, you gotta get mean." These student soldiers get mean, all right. For all its emphasis on gore and painful ways to die that recall the gut wound death scene in Ryan, the movie also stoops to really icky sentimentality in these final moments -- indeed, throughout the story, as it cuts to shots of hysterically wailing moms as the young volunteers are trucked off, and a cringe-inducing letter-writing voice-over probably inspired by Saving Private Ryan. It's tonally wrong, just as the earlier comic-relief with a fat soldier who eats raw potatoes feels wrong, and it's this sort of weirdness that is keeping even big budget Korean movies from breaking into the American market. Maybe Brett Ratner should re-edit and chop down this one, like he did the Bollywood movie Kites.