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<center>http://pop.inquirer.net/files/2017/08/The-Battleship-Island.jpg</center>
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No one will mistake The Battleship Island as a realistic war picture. This epic film about World War II is inspired from the true story of Korean slavery by Japanese soldiers on Hashima Island, but its often over-the-top cinematic style diminishes its credibility as a remake of historical events. But maybe that's not the purpose of the movie. The Battleship Island is a bombastic war spectacle . Tales of telling stories are replaced by hysterical screams, blood, and explosions. Coarse, hyperactive, noisy, but the sensationalism in large-scale action sequences makes the movie rarely boring.
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Through the Berlin File and Veteran , Ryoo Seung-wan was previously more familiar with prediket as a blockbuster movie director, unlike the older South Korean New Wave directors like Park Chan-wook, Kim Ki-duk or Kim Jee-won. The Battleship Island became his most ambitious movie. A giant set of sizes is built specifically according to the shape of this "Island of War Wars". The scale is 2/3 of the actual size. With a budget of $ 22.3 million, I wonder how much money is allocated to building sets and preparing explosives, because later on we will see how these sets explode here and there sporadically.
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"Island of War Wars" is the nickname for Hashima Island because of its shape resembling a warship. Around him was built a solid high wall. During World War II, Japan used the island as a location of forced labor for Koreans and Chinese. At that time, the situation in Korea itself was chaotic because it was colonized by Japan while Japan began to falter with Allied pressure. A jazz musician, Lee Gang-ok ( Hwang Jung-min ) looks for a way to become a dark exodus to Japan with his son, Sohee ( Kim Su-an ). But instead of evacuating, they are even trapped along with dozens of other ship passengers.
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They were taken to Hashima Island in the middle of the sea, about 15 kilometers from Nagasaki. Gang-ok is separated with his son. The men are forced to work in a coal mine whose condition is very dangerous. Explosions can happen at any time, tunnels can collapse at any time. Women are taken to the home of prostitution to be a lust for Japanese officials and soldiers. Fortunately, with his young age and clever acrobatics, Sohee was just a maid ... for now.
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<center>http://pop.inquirer.net/files/2017/08/TBI-casts.jpg</center>
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The plot becomes increasingly uncertain when we are introduced to some other characters. Song Joon-ki plays Park Mu-young, a trained spy sent on a mission to rescue rebel leader, Yoon Hak-cul ( Lee Kyoung-young ). There is also a former gangster, Choi Chil-sung ( So Ji-sub ) who shows his dominance by beating the thugs who challenge him. These supporting characters seem to aim to broaden the context of how this slavery impacted people in all walks of life. On the woman's side, there is Mallyon ( Lee Jung-hyun ), a sexually violent sex worker (she tells how her opposing friend is forced to roll over the nails) and later ties up with Chil-sung.
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<center>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmA2YIWRF0M</center>
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At the turning point just before the Allies bombarded the island and dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, everything became a mess. Forced laborers are planning to escape. I can not call it a "plan", because from what I see, most of it takes place spontaneously. Gang-ok who had been struggling to keep his life and his friends by licking, became one of the spearheads because he was already quite trusted by the Japanese army.
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All these narrative threads, to me quite difficult to follow. Ryoo presents it with such intensity, I feel every plot points crammed without giving us a chance to breathe. The film moves almost without pause or focus. Very minimal dynamics in story telling. The emotional weights I only got from Gang-ok and Sohee's stories, mostly due to the incredible appearance of Kim Su-an. This little girl had a spontaneity that made me really fall in love with her, whether she danced funny or nged when she was scolded by her father. This fits perfectly, because the character Sohee told very easy to be liked by others.
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Ryoo who also co-wrote the script simplifies his character into almost one dimension. Gang-ok is a man who always "drifted", riweuh take care of this. Played by Hwang with theatrical and comical acting thus giving the odd contrast of tone for his brutal film. The character of the Japanese army is described as a pure man. But it does not matter if you look at The Battleship Island as a celebration of struggle and independence (well, for colonial times, we do not think of Holland as a good party, right?) As well as a memorial to the national trauma.
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For this, Ryoo compensates with so much energy. This film is a show of choreographed set-pieces with spectacular. The climatic scene that involves a mass breakout has an epic brutality. The visual aesthetics are replaced with Molotov cocktail bombs. The film is said to be prioritized to appear in theaters ScreenX format, a projection system that promises an immersive viewing experience, almost 360 degrees. I am, unfortunately, unable to access this cinema class, so maybe the impact of the movie is slightly reduced.
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Image Source :
<a href="http://pop.inquirer.net/files/2017/08/The-Battleship-Island.jpg">1, </a>
<a href="http://pop.inquirer.net/files/2017/08/TBI-casts.jpg">2. </a>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmA2YIWRF0M">Trailer</a>
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