At a critical point in the Korean War, a small, inexperienced battalion of student soldiers are tasked with liberating the strategic location of Incheon. With little ammunition, low food supplies, and second-hand weapons, the soldiers head for the frontlines of Jangsari beach. Based on the true story of forgotten heroes of the Korean War, can the student soldiers successfully carry out their mission and turn the tide of the war?
“The Battle of Jangsari” is a South Korean film based on true events that transpired during the Korean War where students made up the bulk of the soldiers for a suicide mission. The film, almost two hours long, doesn’t really break any barriers when telling the story of young heroic individuals in any sense. Also, while this film is honestly populated by newer actors, the acting feels off, kind of uneven and forced. It could be the script but it can’t all be blamed on that. Even good actors can make a decent attempt at a mediocre script.
Most of the attention focuses on the students, 772 of them and their non-commissioned officers who are adults. Even though they are in wartime, these students, young and male, focus on things children should at their age, girls, friends, and the like. All while this is happening you have adults who are giving tips on how to load your weapons or how to keep your rations dry if you need to. It was a good mix of what growing up is like and how the mind of a child persists even in wartime.
Loss of innocence is key in this film, it is about war taking it all from you no matter if you are a child or not. They are completely different people from the time of their journey into war and their last, as one should be. With these children seeing death and war in what is effectively an echo chamber, I wonder what happened to those children who survived the war and how they and their families turned out.
The movie, although short on good acting and a strong script, does well in balancing personal drama in the first half of which, once you get attached to the characters, enters into a more wartime feel with more action and explosions and a war movie-esque feel. While the film is lightly populated by Megan Fox, she doesn’t really grace the screen much and really feels like a ploy to attract eyes but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
It’s disheartening to see a film that could have been great, turn out not to be. It’s like all of the ingredients were there but weren’t used. If this film had a better script and maybe was given more of a go with the actors that populated it, it could have been given a higher rung on the ladder.
Available on Blu-ray™, DVD & Digital January 28th
