On June 25, 1950 the North Korean Army stormed across the DMZ on the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea, starting the Korean War.  Lee Jin-tae and Jin-seok were brothers, leading a happy life in Seoul.  Jin-tae was a hardworking shoe-shiner engaged to Kim Young-shin, who worked a noodle stand with Jin-tae and Jin-seok’s mother.  Jin-seok was a college student, paying his tuition with the combined support of his family.  The family’s life was interrupted by the start of the war, and as the North Koreans advanced closer and closer to Seoul, the entire city had no choice but to flee as refugees.

Somewhere in the confusion of fleeing, Jin-seok was drafted into the South Korean Army.  When Jin-tae went to go retrieve Jin-seok, he was drafted as well.  As the train with the draftees took off, the Lee brothers were able to exchange a few words of farewell with their mother and Young-shin.

The film cuts to the front lines, near the Nak-dong river.  The Lee brothers were @$$igned to their squadron, and after everyone met each other, the enemy surprised them to a brutal artillery attack in which many people were killed in explosions, or wounded by shrapnel.  This brutal awakening to the horrors of combat caused ...Read more