The Brotherhood of War

‘The Brotherhood of War” was filmed by Kang JeGyu in 2004. Taegukgi hwinallimyo is a war film, which contains the two brother’s story during the Korean War. This was the saddest film we watched during this class over the semester. Unlike the other war film, this film was successful within female since the two main characters are Jang Donggun and Won Bin.

The scene where JinSeok decided to find his brother JinTae, even though he did not liked JinTae’s actions did not understand his decision before he reads the letter tht JinTae wrote to his mom, was the saddest scene of the film. However, JinTae did not recognized Jin Seok first, and thought he is one of the military members from South Korea, tried to shot him, but Jin Seok says “we have to go back to where mom is waiting”. As mentioned in the reading, “emotional reunion between separated families and finally on sepia-tinted photograph, encased in a cracked frame, of chinsok in his student uniform with this mother and older borther. CHinseok represents the aging Korean War generation, one still haunted by those memories, as well as one of the many separated families plagued by this past today” (Kim, 305).  Jin-Tae had antagonism towards South Korea’s (south Korean military and people from upper class status) reactions. Even though they said they would send Jinseok to home if JinTae gets the military awards, they did not keep the promise. However, after JinTae misdeem about JinSeok’s death (he saw the pen that he gave to Jinseok so he thought Jinseok was dead), JinTae became a leader of the North Korean flag-troops. This scene shows that JinTae’s decision was caused by South Korea’s reactions. Also, this indirectly shows that JinTae represents the North Korea itself, and JinSeok represents the South Korea itself. If the government (people from the upper class in this film) reacted what the citizens or weaker (JinTae in this film), there would be no war occur nor the conflicts have lefts.

Also, as mentioned in the reading, “in South Korean film and literature, the Korean War and division constitute an ongoing conversation of a myriad of loose ends as texts continued to catalog and articulate stray stands of such discarded memories” (309), there are many films that contains the story of the Korean War in these days, which cherish those killed in the war. As Kim stated, “Films like T’aegukki hwinallimyo no longer play to an audience with direct experience of the war, but to an audience that is once removed. The films that include the war contents would approach to the audience as an interesting genre that they never had experienced. However, these films would remind the traumatic events to the audience who have experienced, and/or who have lost their family during the war.  As the beginning scene and the ending scene shows, the generations of our grand parents remember these days and have pitiful emotions, but our generations only have the pitiful emotions about the fact that there were many those who have killed during the War.

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.

The Brotherhood of War

The film 태극기 휘날리며, directed by Kang Je-gyu, is one of the most successful box office hits in Korean cinema history. I very much admire the English title of the film—The Brotherhood of War. The title’s meaning is twofold. It represents the brotherhood that exists between Jin-Tae and Jin-Suk and the ancestral brotherhood between South Korea and North Korea.

The film depicts the crucial 6.25 Korea Conflict by following the story of brotherhood between the main characters, Jin-Tae and Jin-Suk. Jin-Tae’s confrontation with his brother, Jin-Suk, is much akin to the confrontation between South Korea and North Korea. South Korea and North Korea share the ancestral brotherhood of race. They share the same roots and blood, just like Jin-Tae and Jin-Suk. Initially, the war was instigated by outside powers advancing their own agendas, and not the will of the Korean people. In the film, Jin-Tae and Jin-Suk face a similar situation. They are honor bound to fight, even though it is not their desire. However, after some time, they voluntarily choose to continue the war like Korea nowadays.

Director Kang Je-gyu used a similar style in his 1998 film, Swiri. He depicts North Korea and South Korea as lovers who have to kill each other. Another common aspect of his two films is their subject matter. Both films focus on how war affects individuals, and not on the politics of war. This style allows the audience to connect with the characters and thus become more invested in the films.

Once a Korean, Always a Korean

   In all honesty, I didn't think of the militaristic setting as a North vs. South conflict. It was more of a civil war between two groups of Koreans, of the same ethnic blood, fighting for the victory of their own beliefs. In that sense, I was saddened by how the director conspicuously portrayed the communists Koreans as the "bad guys", the villains that non-communist Koreans don't want in their backyard. I am not saying that there was no clear tension between the two back then, but that the aggressive behavior shown towards either side has been emphasized and, moreover, overdone. Just because of political differences, they are determined to eliminate others of their race through means of nighttime ambushes, bombs, mutations, machine guns, and no-trial executions? First reaction to this is that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword. Second, we all know how the Korean War "ended" (with none other than an armistice), so was all this violence done in vain? Was all this fighting of any profit at all to both sides? Third, in spite of the split of the two Korean nations, many Koreans either have or are beginning to view the North Korean civilians as brothers and sisters whom they hope to one day be reunited with. This last point is what I want to elaborate more on, for I feel as though it is rapidly gaining more momentum in our world.

   Twelve years ago, tired with the festivities of the night during an epic World Cup Soccer match between Korea and some other country in the quarter-finals, I slept on the couch at my family friends' house. I remember how my parents and their friends were decked out in red, those Red Devils shirts, as they chanted these Korean slogans Shin talked about on the first page of her "Intro". At that time I was disinterested in soccer, much less the conversations of grown-ups. Jump forward to my high school years.  In the living room of my family's home, I was watching a World Cup Soccer commercial. It included a video no longer than a few seconds of an elderly South Korean man in the audience of a 2002 match. What struck out about this man immediately was that he was holding both a South Korean flag and a North Korean flag and waving them proudly. And as I read Shin's essay, this memory hit me. 95% of Shin's respondents to her survey on Korean identity "agreed that "North Korean people are of the same Korean ethnic-nation"" and she wrote how most Koreans do not have doubts about ethnic unity (2-3). In that sense, that Korean man with flags on TV was spreading awareness of the blood ties between the two Korean nations. A sports victory by North Korea could then be construed as a victory for the whole peninsula, since North Koreans are seen as a constituent of the han race. But could it work the other way around? Maybe, but no doubt it will go unrecognized by North Korean officials. 

Anti-Communist Propaganda in “The Brotherhood of War”

“The Brotherhood of War” was probably the most emotional and dramatic film we have watched in class so far. One of the key themes of the movie was the division of families in North vs South camps. The movie showed that people were not really fighting this war under an ideological pretext (as might be expected) but most of the time they were simply forced to join a side. Characters from both sides repeatedly claimed that they were forced to join the army and that they didn’t really want to do this. As an effective propaganda I would expect the director to show the South Korean army as being formed by people who gladly fight for their freedom as opposed of the North Korean army who would be made out of forced soldiers. But in reality, it was emphasized that both armies were formed of forced soldiers, which might be more realistic.

  However, what I found particularly interesting was the development of Jin-Tae throughout the movie. Initially we see him as a loving brother, who would do anything in order to protect his brother (and probably all his loved ones) but at some point he just started to behave differently. After he became a soldier he started to risk everything in order to get a medal, under the pretext that he could ask the release of his little brother. This risky behavior that Jin-tae was engaging in seemed to bring out a new side of him; one that was more violent, more competitive and combative, and less considerate. Slowly, the character seemed to change from an admired character to a displeasing one. And what I found a great strategy for anti-communist propaganda was the fact that the moment Jin-tae was at his worst behavior he was part of the North Korean army. This clearly showed that if you are not a liked individual you no longer belong on the good side (South Korea). However, there’s always room for a change of heart. And the moment he turns towards the proper side he manages to spend his last moments of life defending his family and country.

Atrocities by Both Sides & Ethnic and Racial Nationalism in Korea

Kang Je-gyu’s 2004 blockbuster film, Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War, "renarrativizes the Korean War through a remembering process of “flashbacks”" (Kim 289) and tells a story about two brothers named Jin-tae and Jin-seok who are forced to join the South Korean Army during the Korean War and who become separated and end up fighting on opposite sides.

The director, Kang, did an outstanding job by trying to depict a more balanced approach towards the Korean War than other earlier anticommunist films by criticizing both North and South Korea for committing atrocities (Kim 303). It was interesting how Kang broke the conventional norm of Korean War films, which tend to vilify the North as this evil enemy-state that invaded the South, by revealing intra-South Korean violence seen in military and right-wing militia brutality and forced separation of family by the South Korean Army’s policy of conscription (Kim 304).

One notable scene is when Young-shin, Jin-tae’s fiancée, is accused of joining the Communist Party and is arrested and taken by the anti-Communist Federation (South Korean right-wing militia group). Even though Jin-tae and Jin-seok are trying to save her and Young-shin is trying to explain that she is innocent, militia men would not listen and further accuse them of being communists. According to these men, Young-shin is a traitor for signing up for the Communist Party on June 23^rd 1950, working for the party 35 times, and participating in numerous rallies. Before she is shot and thrown in the trench where there are corpses of other  “communist” civilians, Young-shin replies by saying “I did join only for the food. I did not know what its organization was” and “We were starving to death. I needed food somehow for my family! The South Korean government gave us nothing!” 

Young-shin’s response that South Korean government has provided “nothing” is interesting because in the film, South Korean government, instead of giving food and other aids to the people like how communists did, caused family separation by forcing Jin-tae and Jin-seok to join the army, taking away men who are supposed to take care of family members including Young-shin, her siblings, and their mute mother. Actually, South Korean government has given Young-shin something: fear, grief, and tragic death.

Also the ethnic and racial nationalism during the Korean War is puzzling and ironic.Even though Koreans (both North and South Koreans) have a strong sense of identity based on a common bloodline and shared ancestry (Shin2), for example according to Shin’s survey 95 percent of the respondents agreed that “North Korean people are of the same Korean ethnic-nation” (Shin 2), somehow in the Korea War film two Koreas (or two brothers) are bitter enemies fighting to death. If Koreans are from one homogenous group called the “Han” race, how could one explain the fact that it was “Koreans” who invaded “Korea.” Perhaps, there was some misunderstanding on distinction between notions of “We are the people” and “We are one people” (Shin 15).

   

the tragic korean war and Taegukgi

“Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War” is Korean film by Kang Je-Gyu which is based on Korean War in 1950s. This is very famous and first blockbuster Korean movie in 2003. This movie shows love and caring between two brothers during the war period. Since Jin Tae and Jin Seok’s father dies when they are young, Jin Tae scarifies his life for his family. When the war occurs, Jin Seok is conscripted into the army and when his brother tries to get him off the train, he is considered as well. “In effect, it is the Republic Korea Army that fundamentally tears this family apart, which sets off a succession of events that will split up the brothers and result in Jin Tae’s dehumanization.” (Kim. 304) Jin Tae is worried about his brother because he has bad heart and Jin Tae tries to get a medal for sending his brother back to home. Through the war, Jin Tae has changed because he is obsessed to get a medal for sending brother back. He puts himself into risky mission and he does not care even his comrades dies. When they find Yong-Seok who is helper from Jin Tae’s work, Jin Tae wants to kill him because Yong-Seok is wearing North Korea uniform. Because Jin Tae is changing like heartless person, Jin Seok and Jin Tae argue each other. Also, when Young Shin died by anticommunist federation and Jin Tae thought his brother burned by South Korean because both Jin Seok and Jin Tae are suspected as communist since they help Young-Shin, Jin Tae join North Korean army and become a beast against South Korea. When I watched these scenes, I thought that brotherhood is the relationship between North and South Korea. Of course they do not love and care each other, but they are considered as one nation who is fighting continuously.

Also, the movie actually describes well about the sadness through the war. Since people in my generation did not experience, this movie gave an indirect experience of the war to the audience through the war. In the movie, Jin Tae and Jin Seok get forced to split apart from their family for joining the army. Also, they lose their comrades while they fight against North Korean. My grandparents experienced Korean War and they told me that it was tragic because they lost home, family, friends, and everything.  When I listened to them, it was very hard to feel sorrow, but this movie made me to imagine if I lose my family, friends and everything that I have.

Lastly, in the movie, there is a flashback. The movie starts with present which the old Jin Seok waits for the phone call from Korean army to find Jin Tae’s remain. It goes back to the war period which they suffered. After Jin Tae dies during the war, the scene come back to the present again and old Jin Seok cries by seeing Jin Tae’s remain. Then the movie ends with Jin Seok comes back to home and meet his mother. I thought this flashback implicates the continuation of the war between South and North Korea.