The Marines Who Never Returned

In a genre like war film, it is easy to disregard other aspects of a plot for explosions, gunfire, and combat in order to captivate the audience.  However, in The Marines Who Never Returned, Lee Man-hee did a great job of approaching more sensitive subjects such as family disintegration and betrayal, the loss of loved ones, and loyalty to fellow soldiers while at the same time depicting the dynamics of the front line. Also at this time,  it was common for war films in South Korea to be used as anticommunist propaganda.  As David Scott Diffrient’s article shows, although Lee Man-hee’s films were officially labeled “military enlightenment” and “anticommunist” by the Park Chung Hee regime, his films actually transcended genre constraints and took a humanistic approach to the Korean War (22).  Another easy trap to fall into is following the line of thinking that these Korean War films clearly depict a straightforward, clear cut communist versus anticommunist battle.  Once again, in an actual war, nothing is ever that easy.  Can we really categorize every soldier fighting on each side as strictly one or the other? Where do everyday emotions fit in to the fight?  Diffrient points out that Lee Man-hee attempted to “present subtle alternative to the dichotomous portraits of South Koreans as virtuous and communists as merciless,” which eventually resulted in the filmmaker’s arrest (27).  Young-hui, a little girl caught in the crossfire to which she just lost her mother, is taken in by the South Korean soldiers.  Young-hui becomes an integral part of the story, keeping the audience aware of how much her presence as the platoon’s “mascot” means to them.  She keeps the soldiers’ hopes up, as a living, breathing reminder of the happiness that they could potentially await them at the end of the war (Diffrient 39). In a time of terror, there is nothing as powerful as a quick glimpse into a happier future. For the soldiers to believe that their lives ares till worth fighting for and that hope outweighs fear; this is where Young-hui plays the most important role.