Battle of Jangsari, The (2019) Review

“The Battle of Jangsari” Theatrical Poster

Director: Kwak Kyung-Taek
Co-director: Kim Tae-Hoon
Cast: Kim Myung-Min, Minho, Kim Sung-Cheol, Kim In-Kwon, Kwak Si-Yang, Megan Fox, Jang Ji-Gun, Lee Ho-Jung, Lee Jae-Wook, Dong Bang-Woo, Kim Mi-Hwa 
Running Time: 104 min.

By Paul Bramhall

With the thawing in relations between North and South Korea in recent years, movies about the Korean War have taken a back seat, and noticeably been replaced by more action-centric productions which partner agents from the North and South for the greater good. However, 2019 saw the relationship between the divided peninsula return to business as usual, with the North throwing plenty of threats in the South’s direction, as well as its American ally. In terms of the South Korean film industry, this roughly translates to the Korean War being back on the cards as a setting for its productions, with the concern of offending its sensitive northern neighbour no longer a priority.

So it is we have The Battle of Jangsari, a co-directed feature (which is rare for Korea) from Kwak Gyeong-taek and Kim Tae-hoon. Gyeong-taek remains the single most frustrating director working in Korea. That perspective may be a personal one, but as the man who made his directorial debut with 2001’s semi-autobiographical Friend, a classic of the Korean Wave, I didn’t think it too unreasonable to expect he had a bright career ahead. 18 years later, he’s repeatedly proved me wrong, so perhaps it’s time to call it a day and admit that Friend was a wonderful fluke. Gyeong-taek has become the master of the bland and uninspired, with his most recent effort, the 2017 Christian production RV: Resurrected Victims, marking a low point in his filmography. 

Perhaps that explains why he’s been paired with Tae-hoon, a director whose only previous experience was directing a few episodes of the IRIS TV-drama follow-ups, 2010’s ATHENA and 2013’s IRIS 2. The duo are working from a script written by Lee Man-hee, who’s worth a mention because he also scripted the other Korean War movies, 2009’s 71 – Into the Fire, and 2016’s Operation Chromite. In many ways The Battle of Jangsari can be considered a companion piece to Operation Chromite, as they both take place within the same timeframe. While the latter focused on preparations for General MacArthur’s (memorably played by Liam Neeson) Incheon Landing, which played a pivotal part in turning the war to the South’s favour, The Battle of Jangsari was a smaller conflict that was largely dependent on Operation Chromite being a success.

While director John H. Lee may have secured the talents of Liam Neeson for some Hollywood flair in Operation Chromite, expectedly Gyeong-taek and Tae-hoon haven’t been able to secure a big overseas name for their production. So instead, we get 2 smaller ones. First up is Megan Fox. Yes, as in Megan Fox from The Transformers movies (and of course, who can forget her work on the 2018 mini-series Legends of the Lost with Megan Fox!?). Fox plays the real American journalist Marguerite Higgins, who famously covered the Korean War directly from Korea, as she did also for Vietnam. Unfortunately the character here is treated more like a plot device, there to spout increasingly unsubtle lines about the inhumanity of war and how no solider should be left behind. I’m sure if Higgins ever imagined herself being portrayed onscreen, it wasn’t like this.

Fox’s sparring partner comes in the form of an American General played by George Eads, most recognizable as Nick Stokes from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, who he played from 2000 – 2015. Eads is there to do what he has to do, relating both to his characters actions and his performance. With the main requirement to maintain a stern face and constantly repeat variations on the “I’m doing all that I can” line, Eads does a decent enough job of reacting to the often eye-roll inducing lines that Fox is lumbered with. Both are of course ultimately supporting players to the main cast, who are led by Kim Myung-min (Deranged) as the Captain of a unit of inexperienced teen soldiers, sent to Jangsari in an attempt to capture a coastal town currently held by the North. Their victory would help to clear a path for the larger Incheon Landing, however many considered it a suicide mission against a more well equipped Northern army.

The opening of The Battle of Jangsari is an indicator of what can be expected from the rest of it. We meet Myung-min as the Captain, already on the ship heading towards Jangsari with his unit, encompassing a handful of the teens who we’ll be spending the next 100 minutes with. There’s the brash and over-confident one, played by Kim Sung-cheol (Too Hot to Die), the cool and collected one that looks like they have the world on their shoulders, played by K-pop boyband member Choi Min-ho (Derailed), and a few other stereotypes. Before long, we’re into Saving Private Ryan territory, as the beach assault begins and we begin to check the boxes – the vomiting from sea sickness (check), the shocking sight of a decapitated soldier (check!), the solider who’s briefly deafened after a grenade goes off next to him (check) – there’s nothing here that hasn’t been done before.

With that said, the scene is still a powerful one, and to Gyeong-taek and Tae-hoon’s credit, they do elaborate on the much used template for depicting war that Speilberg established over 20 years ago. Once they’re up close and personal with the enemy, there’s a handheld shot that moves through the trenches, as soldiers from both sides hack, stab, and bludgeon each other to bloody death with their rifles. It’s a short scene, but the immediacy and uniqueness of it made it stand out more than the bullet riddled beach assault that we’ve now seen many times before. The intensity of this scene was refreshing, but is almost immediately offset by the overly cheerful victory celebration, which in many ways marks the beginning of the tone The Battle of Jangsari takes on for its duration.

Much like 2004’s Taegukgi: Brotherhood of War, soon proceedings become more increasingly melodramatic. Unlike Taegukgi though, Man-hee’s script comes across as contrived. In one scene we’re introduced to the female twin sister of one of the characters, who’s disguised herself as a man to be a part of the unit. She doesn’t appear in any other scene or have any kind of development, but it becomes clear at the end that the only reason she was introduced, is so she can have a melodramatic death scene. First rule of screenwriting – if you want the audience to care about a characters death, they first of all need to know them. In another scene Choi Min-ho stumbles across a village being used by the North Korean army. We’re told early on that Min-ho’s family was originally from the north, and upon being seen by some of the North Korean soldiers, one of them turns out to be his cousin. What are the chances? Let’s go with slim.

The performances offer little assistance to back-up the implausibility of such events. Myung-min is a reliable performer, but as a lead he never leaves much of an impression, and his role here as the conflicted Captain isn’t going to change anyone’s opinion. The K-pop star to actor transition has suited some more than others, and Choi Min-ho falls somewhere in the middle. While his performances in the likes of Derailed and Ilang: The Wolf Brigade were passable, here he’s decidedly one note, conveying his inner-torment for the most part by wearing an expression of boredom. Out of the leads it’s only Kim Sung-cheol who registers as a brash and cocky member of the unit, before even he falls foul of over-emoting when the inevitable scene calls for it. On the bright side, all of this means that Megan Fox doesn’t look so bad.

While the events of The Battle of Jangsari deserve attention and their place in history, adapting them for the screen has resulted in a decidedly cookie-cutter war flick, one that will seem familiar to anyone who’s seen even a couple of war movies. If you’re a diehard fan of the war genre, then you may derive some enjoyment out of its punchy 100 minute runtime, for everyone else, stick with the classics.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 5/10