Maxing bodycount and box-office, Brotherhood (Tae Guk Gi) outgrossed Titanic in Korea by out-grossing Saving Private Ryan. Bullets, bayonets, flamethrowers, landmines: this epic tale of two brothers sucked into the Korean War dives into the carnage with astonishing ferocity. Hyped up on the bloody taste of battle, Brotherhood might be overlong (at 148 minutes) and clogged with chest-thumping melodrama, but it’s still provocative and unflinching enough to undercut plenty of the clichés it drags out of the genre’s trenches.
DVD Extras:
A fine commentary from Asian cinema buffs Bey Logan and Mike Leeder kicks off a two-disc whopper with more than five hours of bonus material. Along with galleries, animated storyboards and cast'n'crew interviews we have five Making Of docs, all weighted with tons of on-location analysis and behind the scenes walk-throughs. Best is the reverence given to the Korean War itself: interviews with veterans and stirring vintage footage. Impressive.
