andjel

This is a brave and important movie. It has high artistic as well as social value. I say it is brave because it honours controversial people as heroes, while some may call them terrorists. In my country of Croatia we have people who fought for independence, and history remembers them as terrorists and criminals. But I deeply believe that in the difficult historical circumstances they did the best they could and contributed to the freedom we have today. That’s why I am impressed by how Korea honours her history through this movie and promotes the underground heroes who dedicated everything they had to a higher purpose. We can always debate whether the means were justified, and this movie gives us the chance to evaluate it once again.

From the production side this is a great achievement. I liked the tone of the movie. The nature shots are all very beautiful and memorable, while the majority of the movie is spent behind closed doors in dark spaces filled with cigarette smoke and high-tension conversations about how to face the challenging situations. We don’t learn a lot about the characters, but we learn enough to appreciate them. There is also a clever use of black-and-white scenes when the movie shows past events. But this movie is certainly not black and white. It invites us to draw our own conclusions about the actions of the main characters and to learn more about the history behind it.