[The Brotherhood of War]

Tagukgi, The Brotherhood of war, directed by Je-Kyu Kang ,is a 2004 Korean film about two brothers caught up in the national tragedy of the Korean war. The movie begins with a bright happy atmosphere of the South Korean ordinary people, but there is an abrupt change as the North Koreans attack at the 38^th parallel. The Korean War begins and everything drastically changes. When looked at the two main characters of the movie, it’s Jin-tae the older brother and Jin-seok, the younger brother. They were just plain folks in the sense that Jin-tae had always wanted to become a shoemaker while Jinseok desired to keep studying at college. However, even these small dreams of the brothers get soon broken down in the horror of the war. The most interesting thing to view through this turbulent time was the transition of the brothers themselves. While the brothers solely relied on each other during the war, Jintae makes it his life’s mission to keep his brother away from the harm, to protect him no matter what comes before him. This makes us the viewer well aware of their strong beautiful brotherhood. As Jintae continuously goes on risky missions, he gradually transforms into a well-trained soldier who’s brutal and aggressive. However, knowing the very story of him, I couldn’t simply blame him for his transformation into a monster, and this is where I found the message of the director.  The director made this tragic war a touching tale of the two brothers, which further served as a metaphor for the North versus South Korean conflict. If Jintae was a monster,  everyone who participated in the war was, since taking others’ lives was the only way to protect the ones they love. Emphasizing this side of the war, the story goes deep into the heart of Korean national identity and makes the subject not political, but personal as often depicted in other Korean War films.