Movie rating: 9/10 Neck score: A
I loved how cleanly it portrayed both sides. It didn't demonize or glorify one side over the other. It didn't paint one bad the other good, but that the whole thing was a mess. The higher ups on both sides were just as bad, demonstrating the stereotypes and prejudices, while the common soldier, the individual, each had a story and their own opinions.
I absolutely love Song Kang Ho. He is just the best, and he was the best in this as well. He played one of the North Koreans, and I loved how he captured the character, making him relatable and honest. He was a person, and not a caricature. He was well rounded. He was very human. I loved all the interactions between the soldiers. It didn't matter which side they were on, they all did a good job of making them people, making them human, scared, and lovable.
I didn't particularly care for the Korean Swiss girl who was in charge of the investigation. She was too focused on find out the truth rather than protecting the people involved. However, she represented the neutral side of the discussion, which is one of the points that movie touches on. Are neutral counties humane? Is being a neutral party and not picking sides helpful or humane? It cited Switzerland after the Korean war, not accepting the Koreans wanting to escape from the divided countries as an example. Another point that was driven home was the value of truth and knowing the whole story. Is that always better? Also, what would you do to protect someone or something?
I feel like all of the actors did an amazing job, besides the fact that I didn't get the girl's character, but that might be a writing issue, except the foreign actors. There was this one Swiss officer who sounded Russian and was definitely the typical "I got this part because I speak English and am white." Then there was the Swiss commander guy who was also an "arm chair anthropologist" who made the mistake of trying to act when he was terrible at it. There was one hilarious part when he was complaining about how awkward it was to be in the JSA now that tension was high when he suddenly threw out a German swear word. Kind of like a cannon shot out of nowhere. It was clearly meant to be said under his breath, and amateur like me would have known that, but he hilariously said it like this. "It's not such a pleasant place to be right now, with this horrible event. SWEARWORD!!!!!!" Haha, it doesn't really do it justice, but suffice it to say, we all burst out laughing, especially since we all knew what the word meant, despite the fact that they failed to subtitle it. And inappropriate laughter echoed through the theater.
I failed to mention that like Ode to My Father, we watched this one at the local university's international cinema program. Which meant that we were watching with a bunch of college students who may or may not get what's going on, because they are just watching it for credit, extra or no. But it's nice to see them for free, although they do edit some of the less appropriate content out, such as that German swear. Haha. It's also fun to watch in a theater situation, where we can confuse or amuse fellow audience members with our fangirling and appreciation of the humor. It was also nice to see those kids appreciating the humor as well. It was a good movie.
So, I loved it. It was heart wrenching and really well done. It was also really funny to see all those actors as such little babies. It was 17 years ago, so of course they were much younger, but that's about all you can say about it. It definitely is a movie that stands the test of time. It didn't feel dated, or particularly old. It still felt poignant and well rounded, and I loved it. I also wanted to cry because of it, but isn't that how good movies are?
