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Brotherhood [2004] | ![Brotherhood [2004]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MBPYWMSKL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Kang Je-gyu
Actors: Dong-kun Jang, Bin Won, Eun-ju Lee
Studio: Contender Entertainment Group
Category: DVD
List Price: £19.99
Buy Used: £0.98
You Save: £19.01 (95%)
New (8) Used (13) Collectible (1) from £0.98
Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 24206
Format: Anamorphic, Box Set, Dubbed, Pal
Languages: English (Subtitled), English (Dubbed)
Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region: 2
Number Of Discs: 2
Running Time: 142 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5030305510725
ASIN: B0009VJY48
Theatrical Release Date: 2004
Release Date: September 5, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Amazon.co.uk Review
A big, bruising epic of the Korean War, Tae Guk Gi or Brotherhood smashed box-office records when it played in South Korea in 2004, almost as though the country needed to re-live the trauma at a 50-year distance. For the rest of the world, this movie looks like a ground-level reckoning in a melodramatic key, with an authentic feel for battle lines as well as home front. It follows two brothers--one uneducated and forceful, the other intellectual and reserved--as they are united and then divided by the conflict. The broadly emotional story has some of the power of tales of the American Civil War, when family members found themselves on opposite sides of a battle. Director Kang Je-gyu , who made the lively female-assassin hit Shiri, takes a blunt approach to the material (including a Saving Private Ryan-style framing device). And at 150 minutes, he has plenty of time for head-splitting, blood-spraying combat. This movie is meant as a punch in the stomach, and it connects. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
 "We Live And Die Together" July 29, 2008
Mark Pearce (UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Korea 1950.Two brothers are press ganged into the army after the North invade the South.The elder is determined to protect the younger but he becomes a fierce fighter and with history and honours beckoning the man becomes beast.
Framed a la Saving... by a contemporary beginning and end,Brotherhood is a broad,heartfelt and ferocious piece.Outdoing Ryan with epic combat sequences that are utter carnage the director Kang Je-Gyu(who also scripted) captures the confusion and the insanity of war with startling clarity.
Overwhelming at times and not without flaws - a contrivance too many and a final battle that is a little too like greek tragedy,Brotherhood works through it's sheer visceral nature(one scene where a crazed soldier starts shooting his own is hard to watch) and a heartfelt depiction of sibling love(both brothers are first rate).
Critcism from other quarters seems harsh to me(enjoying"world cinema" isn't just an exercise in being condescending and intellectually detatched,we all like a bit of the wonderful Alain Resnais and Jean Cocteau but not Scorcese's overblown and ponderous remake of the superb Infernal Affairs)and being manipulated emotionally for something as stirring as this seems a fair trade off to me.Anyway everyone knows that a good war movie is the male tearjerker(apologies to all ladies who enjoy war movies)
Highly recommended.
 Coming at it from a different angle May 29, 2008
Ben Collings (London)
9 out of 12 found this review helpful
Oh Dear. Imagine a Korean version of Saving Private Ryan. Now replace Tom Hanks with Rambo. Replace the scriptwriter with a fourteen year old boy, miles from home, who has forgotten to take his brain medication and misses his mum. Replace the camera crew with a team of blind chimps that have been trained to point their cameras at loud noises. Now replace the supporting actors with hysterical coked-up acrobats. And finally replace you, the viewer, with someone else.
Now, if you're a bit slow at reading subtitles, fear not; you don't need the script to follow the story, the screen shows you everything. And don't worry about those uncomfortable pauses - every second of this lengthy film is filled with the sweet sound of hysterical jabbering, cheesy orchestral incidental music, and explosions. Oh, the explosions. After a while you stop noticing them.
Okay, you can probably tell I don't much like this kind of war movie, so approaching it more objectively... I guess if you were a fan of the genre, Brotherhood might be quite good. It is a high budget offering with some realistic special effects, gore, lots of buildings and soil and people exploding, a strong, silent hero fighting for family values against the evil oppression of the commies... maybe if you love this type of film, I can see how at a push you might give it 4 out of 5. However, if you're coming at it from a different angle and are a fan of World Cinema, I think it's unlikely that you will have the stamina to watch it all the way through. As an action movie it doesn't have the tongue-in-cheek kitsch of Stephen Seagal or the amusing one-liners of Arnie that make it possible to watch pap at 2am when you're drunk. Brotherhood is a serious effort about a historical war, real political movements and proper death, so no room for chuckles - but neither is there significant depth or subtlety to stimulate the brain or heart muscles. I can't help but feel this potentially interesting subject matter has fallen into the wrong hands, like a journal that is discovered by a village idiot and promptly eaten. Frankly I am disappointed with myself for making the assumption that if an eastern film has made the leap of being accepted in the west in subtitled form, it must be worth it.
 Masterful! December 26, 2007
Mr. C. W. Turner (England)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Ive just finished watching this and felt immediately compelled to write a review, this is probably the best war film ive ever seen! Amazing direction, brutal and bloody but also moving. This is not just a realistic potrayal of war, its also a beautiful story that is well acted and superbly made! Buy it!! You wont regret it!
A different perspective on a forgotten war November 10, 2007
Trevor Willsmer (London, England)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Tae Guk Gi/Brotherhood of War suffers from being the hundredth film to adopt Spielberg and Kaminski's by now rather tired and cliched approach to filming battle scenes a la Saving Private Ryan but gains both from its fresh perspective - the Korean War from the Korean viewpoint - and from honest sentiment. The story may be War Hunt revisited as two brothers go to war only to be divided as one is morally consumed by it, but it is surprisingly and genuinely moving come the finale (which handles the modern-day framing device much better than Spielberg's epic). Curiously, the film is very critical of South Korea's conduct of the war, both at the front and at home, and all the more powerful for it.
With Korea very much a forgotten war these days, it's good that the DVD extras on the two-disc set include some historical perspective alongside a detailed account of the film's production.
few can rival this ! November 5, 2007
sean paul mccann (ireland)
brotherhood is a korean film that charters the civil war that took place in the late 1940s and kicked its way into the early 50s,the events of that war are portrayed here,well,the south korean angle to be more precise.
The film deals with two brothers who are forced into joining their countys fight for liberation,there is little in terms of training,they are basically handed a gun and an uniform and told to kill,the elder of teh brothers is headstrong and forceful and wants his brother to be sent home and continue with his schooling so too get this done he volunteers for the most gung ho of operations to attain a medal of bravery that should help him get his brother sent home.
The younger brother starts to see changes in his brother as he learns to kill with little remorse and all the while the rest of their family plunder on back home with little news of their sons.
The film is emotional and plays on the family ideology,this is first and foremost in may of koreas movies,the battle scenes will shock you,brains,limbs,skulls,fly through the air like candy,its violent and unrelenting in places,but stunningly achieved.
How the film pans out wont be revealed by me but i aint too stubborn to say there was a tear in my eye at the end,haunting,violent,moving and superbly achieves what it wishes to do,it is no wonder that a quarter of south koreas population watched this upon its release,now its time for us to watch this stunning piece of cinema that gives american cinema a real slap in the face.
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