War movies have appealing brutality. Especially good war movies. Judging from the trailer it looks like Into The Fire will be a good movie. Hopefully without much pathos. I know, every war movie requires some of it, there's no war history without it, but not too much. Let's not overdo it. This was what irritated me while watching May 18, it was in overall good movie, even Lee Jun Ki was watchable in it, but toward the end it suddenly started becoming sluggish and heavy. The story itself was a horrible truth, the escalation of the conflict well showed, but something was not right.
One of the greatest new war movies is without doubt Welcome to Dongmakgol, but it's not that typical war movie. No battles, no canons to fire, no big words. Instead - small village, crazy girl and both South and North soldiers trapped in this peaceful, remote place. The one who survives the tragic mistake, an American soldier, brings typical American pathos to the film. But it's his face, sir! Nothing more can be done with a log of wood! There's Shin Ha Kyun (South) and Jeong Jae Young (North), and it's their attitude towards each other and the rest of the characters that counts. War is somewhere behind the hills. But war will approach this small hamlet. The sad thing is, no one will remember the sacrifice though. But I think this is the pivotal thought. Small sacrifices, without fanfares, are put into the oblivion with time. In the village no one cared about Nort-South conflict, they cared about their crops. Death of the soldiers is something as natural as changing of the seasons. But it's for them, for those stranded soldiers, that the last fight counted.
