Stay united, bros.

This film, to be honest, evoked some rather uncomfortable feelings in me. Having witnessed and participated in all kinds of activities nationalistic in nature, I can’t help but question the rationale of assertion of where one’s loyalty lies – his personal value defined by ideology, manipulated by power dynamics, thus his humanity deprived. Especially in The Brotherhood of War, Jin-tae’s  double switch of political stance only renders his strength (or weakness, for that matter) of being a human, with sense and sentimentality, even it might be perceived as diffident and unpatriotic.

Then indeed, patriotism along with nationalism, as Gi-wook shin argues, would be a double side sword:” Nationalism allows for “chameleon-like permutations” because it can be combined with ideologies like liberalism, racism, and romanticsm, which serve a variety of goals from democratic to authoritarian, divisive to unifying, modern to anti-modern (shin).” The theme brotherhood not only appears superficially between Jin-tae and Jin-seok, but also is emphasized in the nature of the war itself – how unconceivable and ridiculous it is, fighting your fellow brothers when your family is waiting to be cared, nation reconstructed. The Korean War is a special case: if any war could be rationally explained and justified with differences predetermined by prejudice and discrimination, here one couldn’t tell the enemies and alliances other than judging from his muddy uniform – then what is the uniform? Does it determine and absolute a soldier’s loyalty?

There was a theory asserting hatred as the emotional driving force behind political actions, a motive power which could be used to create unity and dynamism – I agree. Even now in South Korea the Communist counterpart is at times monsterized; and so are we. If South Koreans believe in our righteousness, integrity and humanity, there is no reason to not understand and empathize that people living on the other side of the land do not share the same characteristics, if not more so.

The Brotherhood of War is an emotional calling for common ancestry and compassion – when the solider demands “is ideology that important to kill each other over?” The audience, hopefully, would ponder that too.