Strictly average movie

Good concept, poorly executed.

Excellent, a Must See

Best movie ever!

Unless you are totally familiar with the strange morass that was the Korean War, the results of which are this day evident in a divided county, it might help to zip over to Wikipedia and get an overview of the reasons for the conflict, some historical background as backup, as The Front Line tosses the viewer into the heat and broil of battle at once, and it helps to know what's going on historically. That said, this is an amazingly powerful and kinetic document about power and honor and the nature of being a soldier; it is told from the viewpoints of one main character sent to join a problematic unit where it appears that there might be an embedded traitor; along with the viewer, the character discovers who in the unit holds what secrets, who has a sense of perspective, who cannot take orders and even unearths a past event which explains the odd behavior of so many in the unit. All this while having to engage in brutal battle, often hand-to-hand, on a daily battle, an immersion into human beings expected to be killing machines.Like Kubrick's great anti-war classic, Paths of Glory, The Front has the men engaged in which is essentially a suicide mission to save a small inch of land; in Paths of Glory, it was the "Anthill," held by the Germans; in this film, Aerok Hill, still in dispute. This is a dark film with occasional glimmers of humanity, but no glorification of war.

THE FRONT LINE is a typical addition to the recent wave of South Korean war movies that strive to explore new avenues on a very famous theatre of war. The last two I saw were WELCOME TO DONGMAKGOL and 71 INTO THE FIRE; the former was a politically intriguing exploration of the nature of conflict itself, while the latter was a flag-waving crowd-pleaser. THE FRONT LINE falls somewhere between the two, refusing to demonise opponents while at the same time providing plenty of gritty war action. The earth-flying battle sequences are by far the highlight of this film as the screen is transformed into a nightmarish and barren landscape of blown-up hillsides, dingy trenches and muddy holes in the ground. This is real warfare, post-SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, throwing you into the thick of realistic action and making you feel like you're fighting at the side of the protagonists.It's a pleasure to report that the non-battle storyline is every bit as watchable as the scenes taking place on the battlefield. As in the earlier BROTHERHOOD, much of the plot revolves around the developing relationship between two characters whom the war transforms in different ways: one becomes battle-weary and resigned, the other slightly unhinged and with a real killer instinct. It's a poignant, carefully-drawn relationship and one that sustains the running time admirably. Okay, so some of the sub-plots openly copy those of earlier movies (the whole sniper thing in particular) but that doesn't detract from what is a very good recent war movie.

Plot: North and South Korean troops fight over a meaningless hill just as the Korean War is about to end.The main problem with this film is that it doesn't know what story to tell. It starts out with a South Korean counter-intelligence officer being sent to an infantry unit that has been posting letters from North Korean soldiers to their relatives in the South. But then that gets cleared up and we're left with two stories: the fight over the hill (in which the same three scenes - attack, chat, look in secret box - are repeated over and over again) and a overly-large sub-plot about a sniper. The military scenes are all done in the style that Saving Private Ryan made popular, which would be fine except that they aren't well thought out enough and lack objectives, tactics and incident. Mostly the troops run up or down a hill, shooting as they go. To get some idea of the unreality of it all: at one point the SK troops lose the hill and retreat in disorder...but when we meet them next (only minutes later)they are all sitting around without their weapons chatting in camp. Isn't there a massive hole in their lines they ought to be guarding?The film constantly lapses into tear-jerking melodrama, with nearly every death (of a character) dragged out and plenty of rote speeches: War is Bad, A Divided Korea is Bad, Aren't We All the Same Anyway etc. Plus, lots of dreadful tinkly piano music. The unit is completely dysfunctional, full of drug addicts, the mentally ill and the emotionally unstable. Everyone is forever crying or threatening to shoot each other (in one flashback they really do). The characters are all clichés (rookie, prankster, old sweat etc.) and the emotional relationships are underdeveloped. There is also a hefty dose of coincidence: who would have thought that the protagonist would meet his old buddy and the NK soldier who captured them three years ago on the same battlefield? Really, this is just a worse version of Brotherhood (Taegukgi), a film which did all the same things in this film only much, much better. Watch that instead.

"He said our enemy wasn't commies, but the war itself." Toward the end of Korean War Lieutenant Kang Eun-Pyo is sent to investigate a murder on the front lines. He reaches the area called Aerok Hill where the fighting is most intense. Soon after the truth is reveled a cease fire is signed and the two sides rejoice. But the war is far from over. This war movie interested me more then most of the recent ones. The main reason is that my grandfather served in the Korean War and there hasn't been a lot of movies made about that war. I was interested to see the stuff he refused to tell me about. After watching this I can see why. The movie is a Korean movie so the entire movie deals with a platoon of South Korean soldiers and their struggles. I have said before that for better or worse every war movie since it's release is compared to "Saving Private Ryan", and I never thought a movie could top that one. This is as close as I've seen and in some ways may be better. This is far and away better then "Letters From Iwo Jima" but like both of those movies you are so involved with the characters it is no longer a movie of nameless faces dying but people you feel a connection with. This movie makes you feel all kinds of emotions but the last half hour will make you feel things you never knew you could. Another example of how much power a movie has when it's done right. I highly recommend this movie. Overall, one of, if not the best war movie I have ever seen. I give it an A.