The film begins in the present, with an excavation of a battleground stirring up the memories of one brother for the sibling he lost during the war... Cut to 1950. Lowly shoeshiner/shoemaker, Lee Jin-seok (Bin Won- Guns & Talks) is the eldest brother caring for his mother, his fiancee and her siblings, and most importantly, watching over his young brother Jin-tae (Dong-kun Jang- Friend), who is the families scholar and hope for a better life. While their lives are not exactly prosperous, things are looking up, ... and then the Communist front in the North begins to invade and war breaks out.

Despite a rule of not drafting two males from the same family or those with physical ailments (Jin-tae has a heart condition), the two find themselves consumed by the chaos and automatically enlisted. Jin-Seok takes it upon himself to protect his weaker brother, insisting that they stay close and searching for any way to get his brother out of service. A potential option is mentioned by his battalion commander, who suggests that if Jin-seok were to receive a Medal of Honor, such a request could be negotiated.

So, in order to save his younger brother and send him back home, Jin-seok begins to volunteer for all of the dangerous missions and sets out to distinguish himself in battle. Jin-tae, despite his passiveness and more fragile constitution, worries over his brothers callous choices and doesn't understand why Jin-seok is being so reckless. But, what was initially an attempt to save his brother, Jin-seok's valor gains him a fame and respect that he beings to revel in, becoming a propaganda poster boy for the very army that unjustly drafted him. The war quickly changes them, with Jin-tae trying to maintain a voice of sympathy and reason, while his brother becomes a cold killing machine still intent to send his sibling home.

While the film mainly deals with the brothers and their regimen of soldiers, it comes up with some interesting ways (that I won't spoil) to show the other side of the war, both in terms of those fighting for the communists and the zealotry of the anti-communists turning on their own people.

The battle scenes in Teagukgi owe much to Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers. Bot visually and contentwise, Teagukgi has a similar gritty stark and gruesome realism that is almost punishing to watch. It reminds me of director Sam Fuller's comments in the documentary The Typerwriter, the Rifle, and the Movie Camera. In that doc, the energetic maverick talks of how his battle scenes take you down into the action. But, then the WW2 veteran does profess that his battle scenes lie by showing a man getting shot and just falling down, that he couldn't show the truth, that bodies are eviscerated, and when the dead are gathered, it is in pieces, fragments, trying to make a complete soldier out of various parts. But, since Fuller's era, sensibilities have changed and films don't have to sugarcoat as much. Taegukgi is proof of this. Heads explode. Limbs are severed. Bodies are shattered. The injured go mad and commit suicide rather than endure the pain. Maggots fester in wounds. The men are shell shocked, starving, thirsty, and tired. The trenches are a place of, dirt, mud, blood, viscera, and burning flesh.

Overall, Taegukgi has moments that are unflinchingly brutal, epic in emotion, and poetic, but, as great as those moments may be, there are a few aspects of the film that are a let down and keep it from being the colossal gem its aspires to be. Now, I don't mind a little melodrama in my epic films. Big film, big emotion, it can be a fitting combination, especially true in the classics. However, Taegukgi, at times, lays it a bit too thick. I found myself wishing for a better script or some naturalistic shades of Deer Hunter-worthy acting. It wasn't a problem until the last act, where, because of the opening narrative device (starting the film in present day, knowing which brother was dead), it felt like a long drive to get to a familiar place. Despite its intentions to deliver one final knockout, it is one of those epics full of sweep and grandeur, spending itself until it can spend no more, with nothing left to do but just teeter out.

Conclusion: ...The film itself is a real winner. Not quite Bridge on the River Kwai or Saving Private Ryan but ten times better than Pearl Harbor. Despite a couple of storytelling stumbles, I'll mark it among the best war films I have seen and proudly put it on my DVD shelf next to Platoon, The Dirty Dozen, and The Thin Red Line.

As a result, patriotism has become the unlikeliest casualty. Once welcomed in the trenches of battle, patriotism has lost its limbs, fought back from life support, and suffered shell shock. Once easily recognized, patriotism has become a bit of a chimera, an ideal more easily attached to definable characteristics than it is any single soldier. However, in the bitter end, patriotism is defined by the actions of these individuals who serve; it is rewarded by the nations who sponsor this service; and, more often than not, it is measured in hardships endured.

Such is the complex, ever-changing battleground of writer/director Kang Je-Gyu's "Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War."

In 1950's Seoul, Jin-Seok (Won Bin) and his older brother Jin-Tae (Jang Dong-gun) are enjoying a strong family life of perfect happiness. Suddenly, they find their lives turned upside down as soldiers of the South Korean government seize them - all men aged 18 to 30 are taken - and they are forced to take up arms - despite their lack of training - against the approaching North Koreans. On one brutal battlefield after another, the bonds of family are put to increasingly demanding tests as Jin-Tae - originally driven by his responsibility to protect his younger brother - continues to further exhaust his physical and emotional prowess despite the protests of Jin-Seok. He learns that he is a good soldier, one with a talent for inspiring others as well as an unanticipated thirst for killing the enemy. Eventually, these two brothers - once bound by a love for family - find themselves at odds within this new brotherhood of war, and the pressures to prove one another continue to exact heavier and heavier tolls as the war escalates. As circumstances evolve, the brothers inevitably find themselves on opposite sides of a losing conflict . but can either find a path to redemption or reconciliation that can save both of them?

There are many elements of "Taegukgi" that elevate the film from the status of standard war film to a message of hope set against the backdrop of war. The film's scope is grand, dealing with the far more intimate themes of family, brotherhood, and personal responsibility when Director Kang Je-Gyu could have easily opted for banging the drum of nationalism. At its core, "Taegukgi" is the story of two brothers, a strikingly poignant analogy for the entire North Korea / South Korea dilemma. While the battlefield choreography is as frenetic as it is harrowing, it never takes the film's center: this picture is founded on relationships - the human perspective to the world outside - and it never falters. Instead of focusing on history, Kang Je-Gyu crafts every scene to highlight the thoughts, actions, and emotions of the participants of history, and, for that, "Taegukgi" deserves countless accolades.

Much like exploring the heart of darkness as depicted in American classics as Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" and Oliver Stone's "Platoon," Kang Je-Gyu forces Jin-tae to explore his own budding evil, and this journey is not without its own relative scars. Once a man has crossed over and embraced wartime madness, can he ever truly find a way out? Arguably, if "Taegukgi" suffers from any setback, it is that perhaps Jin-tae goes too far for an audience to accept his madness: believing his brother to have been killed by North Koreans, Jin-tae turns traitor once he is captured and seeks to wipe out every soldier serving South Korea. While the story offers the motivation for so drastic a change, it's hard to believe that the man who once fought so valiantly against the spread of Communism would suddenly choose to embrace it.

Still, it's a small diversion . but it's necessary to bring the aspect of brotherhood full circle, to have these two unique men face their darkest hour, and to make one final statement on the role that family inevitably plays in every man's life.

Recently, thanks to the worldwide success of "Taegukgi" and 1999's blockbuster "Shiri," Director Kang Je-Gyu has signed an agreement with Hollywood's own powerhouse, CAA, to produce his next film in America. Only time will tell whether or not this agreement will afford some of the "Korean sensibility" to American films, but certainly having one of South Korea's premier directors breaking into the Hollywood film system is a tremendous advantage for fans of international film.

Only the passage of time will earn "Taegukgi" its rightful spot alongside the other great films dealing with the consequences of war.