All the people who complain about all the anti Japanese rhetoric don't understand. As someone who's lived both in Korea and Japan, I could understand the motivations of this movie, but I don't think it is really anti Japanese in the slightest. In fact I find this movie to be very respectful to Japanese. For example... In the opening scenes, the Jongno area of Seoul is shown. It is much more built up and busy than it ever will be in real life. Next, there is the idea that nearly all modern day Koreans don't want independence from Japan. Even suggesting such a thing is ballsy for a Korean movie.
I did however find it funny that Saigo, his wife, and his kid all wear kimonos at home. That's really odd. People only wear them on special occasions (such as the other scenes in the movie where they are seen, the art museum reception, and the obon matsuri.) There's also an error, when they are in the bar/hideout for the first time, you can see a sign saying that fosters beer costs 3000 won. OOPS! As far as the plot goes, the first 10 minutes got me hooked. Ito Hirobumi is not assassinated, history changes so that the Japanese Empire was the ally of the USA during WW2, Japan joins the UN security council and is the first to launch something into space. The 1988 Olympics (usually noted as Seoul and Korea's emergence into the first world)don't happen in Seoul, but in Nagoya, the city Seoul defeated by only a few votes in real history... with no competition from a Japanese controlled Seoul, Nagoya wins hands down. In the 2002 Fifa world cup, Lee Dong Guk is shown cheering after scoring a goal, only scroll down to see he's wearing a Japan jersey. (Lee Dong Guk plays for the Korean national team in real history, Japan's team must be amazing since we can combine the best players from the Korean and Japnese teams and also any players coming out of China's coastal cities... see the map in the JBI office later...). When they show Jongno in the opening scenes, the Governor General building is still there and Kwanghwa mun doesn't exist at all (the building was demolished in 1996 and Gwanghwa mun, which stood in front of the governor general building is still there in real history.) The famous Yi Sun Shin statue isn't there and in its place is a statue of Toyotomi Hideyosi, the one who Yi defeated.
After the first few minutes though, Jang Dong Gun starts to speak Japanese and it's nearly impossible to understand what he's saying unless you can decipher what horribly accented Japanese sounds like. (watched this movie with no subtitles.) The entire rest of the plot is boring and stupid. What originally had lots of potential goes into the toilet. I would have had Jang's character join the independence movement and gain the support of the Korean people and possibly being a martyr for the cause, which causes Japan to eventually buckle under pressure and grant Korea its independence, after falling out of favor with Britain, the US, and France, all former colonial powers that more or less (saying that tongue in cheek)have given up on colonialism. Anyway that doesn't make a good action film I guess. Instead we have time travel.
I guess the statement the film makes is one I agree with. Even though Korea is divided, it's still better to be divided and free (sort of), than united with other people controlling you (sort of). The movie is worth watching for the first 10 minutes alone, especially if you're familiar with Japanese and Korean history, and you've ever been to Japan and the Jongno district of Seoul.
I did however find it funny that Saigo, his wife, and his kid all wear kimonos at home. That's really odd. People only wear them on special occasions (such as the other scenes in the movie where they are seen, the art museum reception, and the obon matsuri.) There's also an error, when they are in the bar/hideout for the first time, you can see a sign saying that fosters beer costs 3000 won. OOPS! As far as the plot goes, the first 10 minutes got me hooked. Ito Hirobumi is not assassinated, history changes so that the Japanese Empire was the ally of the USA during WW2, Japan joins the UN security council and is the first to launch something into space. The 1988 Olympics (usually noted as Seoul and Korea's emergence into the first world)don't happen in Seoul, but in Nagoya, the city Seoul defeated by only a few votes in real history... with no competition from a Japanese controlled Seoul, Nagoya wins hands down. In the 2002 Fifa world cup, Lee Dong Guk is shown cheering after scoring a goal, only scroll down to see he's wearing a Japan jersey. (Lee Dong Guk plays for the Korean national team in real history, Japan's team must be amazing since we can combine the best players from the Korean and Japnese teams and also any players coming out of China's coastal cities... see the map in the JBI office later...). When they show Jongno in the opening scenes, the Governor General building is still there and Kwanghwa mun doesn't exist at all (the building was demolished in 1996 and Gwanghwa mun, which stood in front of the governor general building is still there in real history.) The famous Yi Sun Shin statue isn't there and in its place is a statue of Toyotomi Hideyosi, the one who Yi defeated.
After the first few minutes though, Jang Dong Gun starts to speak Japanese and it's nearly impossible to understand what he's saying unless you can decipher what horribly accented Japanese sounds like. (watched this movie with no subtitles.) The entire rest of the plot is boring and stupid. What originally had lots of potential goes into the toilet. I would have had Jang's character join the independence movement and gain the support of the Korean people and possibly being a martyr for the cause, which causes Japan to eventually buckle under pressure and grant Korea its independence, after falling out of favor with Britain, the US, and France, all former colonial powers that more or less (saying that tongue in cheek)have given up on colonialism. Anyway that doesn't make a good action film I guess. Instead we have time travel.
I guess the statement the film makes is one I agree with. Even though Korea is divided, it's still better to be divided and free (sort of), than united with other people controlling you (sort of). The movie is worth watching for the first 10 minutes alone, especially if you're familiar with Japanese and Korean history, and you've ever been to Japan and the Jongno district of Seoul.