Welcome back to Movie Recap. Today I'm gonna show you a 2004 South Korean wartime
action drama film called, Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War. Spoiler's ahead.
Sit back, relax and enjoy the video.
The movie begins with the South Korean excavation team recovering the remains
of the war in the 1950s. Later, the people in charge of contacting the
families of the fallen soldiers talk about a soldier named Lee Jin-seok.
Searching his name in their database, they re surprised to know that he's still alive.
Meanwhile, an old man is attending to his garden when he receives a call from the army
headquarters. He is informed that they recovered remains that identified as Lee Jin-seok, but this
old man is Lee Jin-seok. When the call ends, old Jin-seok decides to go to the excavation site.
In his room, he looks at an old photo of him, his brother, and his mother.
He's been looking for his brother for a long time. He,
then, pulls out a box containing shoes. Holding it firmly, he reminisces his past.
A man is offering shoeshine service when his brother makes fun of him and he chases him.
This is Lee Jin-tae, a shoeshine boy with his younger brother,
Lee Jin-seok, a student. They stop at a shoe shop and admire the shoes on display. Jin-tae, then,
gives Jin-seok a silver pen. Upon thanking his brother, they heard an ice cream vendor.
Jin-tae buys one for Jin-seok. As they catch up on a tram, they bump into their friend Yong-seok.
At the noodle stand, they find their mother and Jin-tae's fiancee, Young-shin working.
Jin-tae sees a sack of barley. Young-shin says she got it for free after signing up on some
kind of National Correction League. At night, the family visits their late father. Afterward,
Young-shin gives Jin-tae a handkerchief made out of her skirt. Later, the younger siblings
of Young-shin requested for them to swim. The two brothers are playing with the children while the
mother and Young-shin talk. Young-shin wishes that they all just stay happy forever. The brothers
suddenly carry the women and make them join the fun, having their best night as a family together.
The next day, Jin-tae is at his shoeshine stand with Yong-seok. Jin-seok suddenly arrives and
breaks the news that North Korean soldiers invade South Korea. Then, they see trucks of
soldiers passing by. An announcement echoes in the town. Everybody panics and immediately gets home.
Night comes and Jin-tae finds Young-shin packing lots of things. Young-shin is stressed out, afraid
that they might lose the noodle stand and Jin-tae might get drafted to fight in the war. Jin-tae,
then, assures her that everything will be alright. Hearing an explosion nearby,
the family evacuates, along with other people.
Morning comes, there's a commotion in the train station.
Soldiers are not letting the civilians in because the train for civilians is not running.
Jin-seok hears this and gets back to his family immediately. Meanwhile, Jin-tae is looking
for a pharmacy when he sees people rallying, wanting to destroy the North Korean communists.
Back to Jin-seok, he notifies his family of the situation.
Then, soldiers arrive and order all men between eighteen to thirty to step forward.
Jin-seok is forced to come with the soldiers. His family tries to stop him but the soldiers
hold them off. Jin-tae, then, arrives and Young-shin immediately tells him what happened.
Jin-tae rushes off to find his brother, and he quickly hops on the train. Walking past the
carriage of the student volunteers, two soldiers stop him from entering another carriage. But he
forces his way through and sees Jin-seok. The two are about to leave but more soldiers stop them.
A fight breaks out between Jin-tae and the soldiers, but he's no match for them.
The train starts as the soldiers take the two brothers in another carriage. Jin-tae tries to
reason out that his brother has a heart problem, but they don't care. The two brothers see their
mother and Young-shin outside, Jin-tae promises to their mother that he will take care of Jin-seok.
Then, we see the brothers on the battlefield, walking past many wounded and dead soldiers. A
commanding officer calls their name one by one. When only Jin-seok's name was called,
Jin-tae pleads to the officer for the two of them to stay together,
and the soldier fortunately agrees. Later, we see their superior discussing their mission.
They are ordered to hold the Nakdong River.
This mission is a live-or-die situation, and retreating is not an option. They re also given
papers to write their wills on, in case they die on the mission. After they got dismissed,
one soldier introduces himself as Yong-man. Outside, they re eating when all of a sudden,
they got attacked. Everybody hides in the trench, but Jin-seok is wounded.
Jin-tae leaves him to get the first aid kit and Jin-seok tries to follow his brother.
He's about to get shot, but Jin-tae saves him. He panics when he sees his brother having a hard time
breathing. His illness is kicking out because of fear and stress. Jin-tae helps him recover,
and he cries on his brother as he gains his breathing back. Later that night,
Jin-tae talks to his superiors about his brother's condition. Jin-tae is determined
to do everything to keep his brother safe. The officer then tries to make a deal with him.
The scene is cut to Jin-seok who's writing a will. Jin-tae arrives and snatches the
paper to ripped it, saying that wills are for the dead people. The next morning,
the soldiers wake up with the news that enemies had already captured the surrounding area.
Even their supply route was cut off. Therefore, they re currently isolated.
Later on, Jin-Tae volunteers in a mission to plant landmines. The group is carefully
planting the landmines while Seung-chul, a student volunteer, is on the lookout.
Afterward, they re about to retreat when Seung-chul is suddenly shot.
The others take cover as the enemies rain down their bullets on them.
Seung-chul accidentally steps on a landmine while trying to take cover,
blowing his leg off. The others rescue him while Jin-tae repositions himself to have a better view
of the enemies to kill them. His comrades want to retreat but he wants to wipe off all the enemies.
Later, we see them taking Seung-chul to the medical unit's tent. Jin-tae walks out of the
tent out of frustration. Jin-seok arrives with the others and he's relieved to see his brother alive.
He questions Jin-tae why did he volunteers for such a dangerous mission
and made his brother promise that he won't do it again. Later on,
we see the two brothers reminisce about their family. Jin-seok talks about the last time
they had ice cream, while Jin-tae holds onto the handkerchief that Young-shin gave him.
Everything in the camp is a mess. Seung-chul's wound is being swarmed by maggots because it
wasn't cleaned and treated properly. Other soldiers are fighting over supplies. And the
enemies are attacking every now and then. The next morning, Seung-chul loses his mind and
shoots another injured soldiers before blowing his head off. Everybody falls in silence.
One of the leaders dismisses and orders them to go back to the trench until Yong-man speaks up.
In their situation right now, they'll either die in bullets or starvation.
It turns out that they re out of food and water for days. The leader reasons out that dying in
the war is an honorable death. This results in an argument and a fight between them.
Other soldiers stop them, and one of the leaders orders them to go back to the bunker.
This is when Jin-tae voices out that they should attack while they still have their strength.
With the only choices of dying in fighting, surrendering, or dying in starvation,
they decided to use their remaining strength to fight. When night falls, they head out to attack.
Jin-seok is supposed to be not part of this mission,
as per his brother's request, but he still goes with them.
They launch a surprise attack on the enemies. Killing every communist insight. An enemy manages
to sneak to a machine gun and fires at them. But Jin-tae didn't waste time and kills the communist.
He, then, proceeds to the bunker and kills every soldier in there, including the enemy's captain.
Afterward, he pours gasoline all over the place and throws a bomb
as soon as he gets out, burning the enemy's camp.
The morning rises and the soldiers celebrate their victory. The brothers finally reunite.
He's worried about Jin-tae, but his brother is determined to send him home alive. Trucks of
soldiers arrive at their camp and the commander congratulates them, especially Jin-tae.
He, also, tells them that the U.S. Marines are already in South Korea to back them up in the war.
He, then, puts a South Korean flag in Jin-tae's gun and orders him to personally wave the flag
when the war is over. Afterward, Jin-tae is being interviewed and getting recognition
from the press. He is also promoted to be a sergeant and will lead their troop.
Jin-seok approaches his brother after the press conference to ask if he wants to say something
to their family because he's writing them a letter, but Jin-tae is too busy to give him time.
Night comes, Jin-seok tells Jin-tae that he's like a stranger to him lately.
Then, in Pyongyang, North Korea, Jin-tae leads his troop in a war.
Jin-tae wants to capture the enemy's captain, but Jin-seok stops him because it's not their mission.
In the end, Jin-tae manages to capture the captain alive, but this costs the life of Yong-man,
who just follows his recklessness because he's the captain. It's another victory for them,
especially for Jin-tae. But Jin-seok blames him for the death of Yong-man.
On another mission, they found nothing but dead civilians who were killed by the communists.
A little girl approaches Jin-seok, crying, asking him for help to find her mother.
Other soldiers are gathering the dead bodies of the civilians when a bomb explodes.
The communists leave a trap for them. Injuring their comrades, this angers Jin-tae even more.
Raiding another town, they re killing every communist they see. Except for Jin-seok
who spares a soldier's life. On the other hand, Jin-tae throws a communist into the fire,
kicking him until he burns to death. Other soldiers are having no mercy for the communists,
too. Killing even those who already surrendered.
The next morning, they conducted another raid. The communists surrender, and to Jin-seok's surprise,
one of them is Yong-seok. Yong-seok tells him that he was forced by North Korean soldiers
to fight for them, threatening to kill him if he won't obey. Then, Jin-tae orders for their death.
Jin-seok tries to defend Yong-seok, but he's determined to kill him.
They just stop when Jin-seok threatens to report them for killing an unarmed enemy.
The soldiers just take Yong-seok and the others as prisoners of war.
Then, we see the soldiers building their camp wherein Yong-seok and the other
prisoners work as laborers. Yong-seok also notices the changes in Jin-tae's attitude.
He, then, tells Jin-seok that their mother is ill,
and Young-shin is participating in rallies everyday just to have some foods.
The next morning, the soldiers celebrate as they heard the news about the nearing end of the war.
But Jin-tae is somehow doubting about it because China may back North Korea up. Then, another
sergeant approaches Jin-tae and congratulates him because he will surely receive a medal of honor.
Other soldiers cheer for him, but Jin-seok doesn't care. Jin-tae approaches him and tells him he
could finally go home, but Jin-seok doesn't want to. The two argue again. It is, then, revealed,
that months ago, Jin-tae made a deal to his commander that if he gets a medal, they will send
back Jin-seok home. But Jin-seok doesn't want to go home, because the medal costs Yong-man's life.
Unfortunately, Jin-tae is right about China backing up the North Koreans.
They are ordered to retreat as hundred of thousands of Chinese soldiers charge at them.
While in chaos, the prisoners try to escape. One of them hostages a soldier but he's killed
by Jin-tae. To Jin-seok's surprise, he also kills the other prisoners including Yong-seok.
Jin-seok attacks his brother but other soldiers stop them.
In Jang-dan, Jin-tae is awarded with medal of honor. After finding out that his brother went
home, he immediately follows him. Jin-seok, on the other hand, reaches their house. Young-shin
greets him, but their reunion is cut short when she is arrested by the South Korean militia.
They suspect her of being a communist. Jin-seok tries to stop them, but he gets captured as well.
Jin-seok is taken inside the building while Young-shin is taken outside where
they execute the suspected communists. She is about to get shot but they re stopped by
Jin-tae. They all point their guns at him, but Jin-seok arrives. One prisoner takes the
chance to escape. This distraction causes the fight between the militia and the two brothers.
During the struggle, Young-shin is killed, and two are arrested for trying to rescue her.
In jail, Jin-tae talks to the security commander and asks for his brother to be released,
in honor of his deal with his previous commander. But instead of doing so,
the security commander orders his men to burn the warehouse where the inmates and his brother are.
He rushes off and tries to rescue his brother, but the flame consumes to warehouse fast and
he gets blasted off by an explosion. He loses consciousness and wakes up
believing the Jin-seok died in the fire. Seeing the silver pen he gave him before,
Jin-tae attacks and kills the security commander as he is being taken away by enemy soldiers.
The truth is Jin-seok is still alive. He was rescued by Uncle Yang and now recovering in
a military hospital. Uncle Yang gives him a letter that was supposed to be sent by
Jin-tae to their family. Two soldiers, then, talk to him, revealing that his
brother joined the communist party, and now the leader of the unit called Flag Unit .
Questioning him, he swears to them that he's not connected to his brother anymore.
Night falls, Jin-seok reads Jin-tae's letter. Having a change of heart, he goes back to the
army to try to find his brother. But he is prohibited to participate in the battle.
Taking matters into his hand, he surrenders to the enemy.
He introduces himself as Jin-tae's brother, but they think he's a spy.
He's about to be taken for interrogation but the attack started and it frees him.
Finding his way in the midst of the war, he finds his brother. But Jin-tae doesn't recognize him and
tries to kill him. Jin-tae is about to shoot Jin-seok but he is stabbed by another soldier,
who he kills afterward. Jin-seok helps his brother to retreat but he is shot in the leg,
too. Both wounded, Jin-seok cries to his brother about their dreams and promises.
Jin-tae finally recognizes his brother. He, then, tells him to escape,
but Jin-seok doesn't want to leave him. Promising to get back to him alive,
and giving his silver ballpen, Jin-seok finally agrees to run. As Jin-seok limps away,
Jin-tae mans a machine gun and covers for his brother. But unfortunately, this causes his life.
Then, we see old Jin-seok in front of the remains of his brother.
He, finally, bursts out in tears as he talks to his late brother.
Back in 1950s, Jin-seok is finally home to his mother and Young-shin's younger siblings.
He, then, discovers the shoes that Jin-tae is perfecting for him to use. The movie ends with
Jin-seok reassuring them that he will go back to school, and fulfill his promise to Jin-tae.