Advance word made me think the story would be about the discovery and destruction of a Korean Brigadoon. In fact, there is nothing mystical about the town of Dongmakgol: it is just a remote village not yet involved in the Korean War, populated by decent people. The North and South Korean soldiers who find their way to Dongmakgol are reluctant warriors crippled by their experiences, and (mostly) determined to spare the people of the village from the casual obliteration declared its fate.

I was very pleased to find that the main American character, a crashed naval aviator, is as decent a person as his saviors in Dongmakgol, and doubly happy that he was played by a very competent actor, rather than the appallingly bad white stock villains one finds in so many east Asian films. Unfortunately, the other Americans, in smaller roles, are every bit as villainous as, if still rather better acted than, the evil whitefaces one sees so often.