Before ever watching this 20-episode strong serial (or, rather a multi-episode film, because it looks more like a real TV film consisting of numerous parts) I saw many South (and North) Korean war films dedicated to their bloody and tragic traumatic Civil War. Only after that I attempted to spend quite a chunk of time to peruse these 20 episodes of 2010's serial named 전우 - Jeonu - or Jon-woo, literally Comrades In Arms, or Brothers In Arms, and translated as Legend of the Patriots for Western audiences. This huge serial was filmed to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Korean War, and it is clear that Kim Sang-hwi and Song Hyeon-wook spared no trifle to commit this mammoth talk to film. And my, did they succeed. They did. Rarely is there a serial about war that doesn't fall from the slippery brink of sentimentality or dwells mostly in macabre. Here, the team managed to show all sides of this war. We see common soldiers fighting, as well as common people suffering under the hardships of war. We see heroism, and valor, but then we witness cowardice, sloth, wrath, anger, revenge, blood-thirst, foolishness, malice and outright stupidity. The greatest achievement of this serial is the deep and thorough development of all characters shown. I am not to disclose the plot of the film, but what I say is that the main story revolves around Sergeant Lee Hyeon-joong played by drama heavy Choi Soo-jong and his detachment - we see them throughout the 3 years of war in different dangerous, daredevil, neck-breaking and thrilling operations where they have to fight the North Korea army, their secret service and thus endure almost all the hardships imaginable - pain, wounds, losses, capture, camp, suffering, treachery, brutality, thirst and hunger among many. Another huge asset of the serial is a very balanced and weighed depiction of both sides, so we see good and evil people on both sides. We see brutality and shame on Southern side, whilst mercy and compassion on Northern side. We witness terrible losses of many important key heroes of the film, as well as their families, and we can't but suffer along with them, especially when we must endure weeping men, losing their nearest and dearest. Again, like in many Korean films, the cameras clearly catch the immense beauty of the country's nature, its vast valleys, rapid rivers, amazing woods and mesmerizing mountains. This awesome grandeur woks perfectly as a superb foil for atrocities people commit to each other. This serial is not devoid of weaker elements - there are far too long and slow scenes now and then, the heroes far too often saved by the last moment appearance of some help, and then the love line of Lee Hyeon-joong and Lee Soo-kyung, his former beloved who went to serve for North. Their love line is cool, but still, need more insight and more details especially for their Japanese resistance past. Another weaker point is certain lack of some pre-war recollections on the side of other main heroes, since we feel for them and would like to learn more about their antebellum lives. All in all, this is still a steamroller of a serial and certainly delivers a powerful anti-war message, trying to rebuild broken bridges and ending torn stitches between two Koreas. I vote 10 for this film and highly recommend to everybody as a prime example of un-biased depiction of civil war.
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