Tae Guk Gi: The destruction of War

Although, we have viewed several other war movies in this class and Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War was by far the most emotionally charged. The reason for the tear jerking quality of the film was due to the display of the sheer chaos and destruction of the war. The repeated scenes of bodies disintegrating and bursting into flames was both shocking and extremely disturbing. Although, we as viewers realize the production behind these choreographed scenes I can’t help but get emotional when thinking of the dismay that the people who lived through this terrible time had to endure.

In addition to the visually horrific battle scenes, the relationship of the two brothers, Jin-tae and Jin-seok, obviously played a major role in the tragedy. If placed in a genre, all wars are real life tragedies. It was extremely tragic watching Jin-tae’s and Jin-seok’s strong bond fall from grace. The situation of the extremely poor getting poorer is one that I expect was frequent during the time of war. The notion of the civil war must have been additionally painful due to the fight against Japan that had so recently passed. One quote from the film revealed the Korean perspective of the civil war. It went something like, “we fought against the Japanese to decent our nation but why are we fighting this war for.” Just after the end of the Japanese occupation in Korea probably one of the last things the Koreans were think about was a civil war.

Jin-tae’s transformation from a compassionate, playful sibling to a demonic, violent, glory seeking soldier was one of the more shocking aspects of the film. Watching as the war stripped Jin-tae’s humanity from him and at the end seeing him forget the person he used to be. The images of his crazed expression and whited out eyes revealed the monster that he had become, the monster that the war had created. This film captured it’s viewers and provided a haunting glimpse into the creature of war.