The “Battle of Jangsari” brings perspective of their involvement in what is considered “The Forgotten War” and the sacrifices made by these young students who should be remembered and not forgotten. “Battle of Jangsari” is recommended.
TITLE: Battle of Jangsari
FILM RELEASE: 2019
DURATION: 129 minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (2:35:1 aspect ratio), Korean and English DTS-HD MA 5.1. Subtitles are in English
COMPANY: Well Go USA Entertainment
RATED: Not Rated
Release Date: January 28, 2020
Directed by Kyung-taek Kwak
Written by Man-Hee Lee, English scenes by Brian Chung and Cory Gustke
Produced by Sung-mi Ko, Jang-Hoon Yang
Executive Producer: Tae-won Jeogn
Music by Jomeil S. Hosseini
Edited by Changju Kim, Woo-Hyun Kim
Production Design by Tae-Hoon Lee
Costume Design by Hyeon-Seob Sim
Starring:
Megan Fox as Marguerite Higgins
George Eads as General Stevens
Minho Choi as Choi Sung-Pil
Myung-Min Kim as Lee Myung-Joon
In-kwon Kim as Ryu Tae-Seok
Si-Yang Kwak as Park Chan-Nyeon
Jae-Wook Lee as Lee Gae-Tae
Sung-Cheol Kim as Ki Ha-Ryun
Pushed to a critical point in the Korean War, the South Korean Army and US Allies are desperate to take back the strategic location of Incheon. The only unit available is a small, inexperienced battalion of student soldiers with barely 2 weeks of boot camp training. Based on a true story of forgotten heroes of the Korean War, can the student soldiers successfully carry out their mission and turn the tide of the war?
Recently, we have seen films that are made in Korea and would feature Hollywood celebrities. The most well-known project is the Korean War which would be featured in a trilogy.
In 2016, the first film was Operation Chromite directed by John H. Lee about the Battle of Inchon and the strategic reversal of the United Nations Command leading the charge to recapture Seoul from North Korea thanks to the risks taken by South Korean intelligence. The film would star Liam Neeson, Lee Jung-jae, Lee Beom-soo and Jin Se-yeon.
The sequel, “Battle of Jangsari” was released in 2019 and features would coincide with the Battle of Inchon which was led by the UN’s Army General Douglas MacArthur but in this case, with diversionary tactics to keep North Korea’s eyes elsewhere, this is a story adapted from a true story about 772 student soldiers who stage a diversionary operation at Jangsari Beach in Yeongdeok village.
Directed by Kyung-taek Kwak, known for films such as “Friend”, “A Love”, “Champion” and “The Classified File”, “Battle of Jangsari” stars Megan Fox and George Eads, alongside Kim Myung-min, Choi Min-ho, Kim Sung-cheol, Kim in-Kwon, Kwak Si-yang and many more.
As these soldiers are sent into a suicide mission and with a lack of training, training in weapons and nor did they have enough food supplies, Kim Myung-min must lead a young group to overcome major odds.
Meanwhile, an American reporter and war correspondent named Maggie (portrayed by Megan Fox) is wanting to expose the truth of the war and to do what she can to prevent many young soldiers from being killed.
“Battle of Jangsari” is a film that offers insight to a battle which many may not be familiar with.
For historians and war buffs, there is a lot of exposure towards the Battle of Inchon and how, prior to that battle, North Korea literally had control of South Korea, until the the UN led by WWII hero, General McArthur, would show his strategic might of launching an offensive by making the North Korean military think that the war was happening elsewhere, which would pave the way for South Korea to retake the country.
But many may not know that these small diversions, these battles were fought by young, untrained students.
These battles have been depicted in films such as “71: Into the Fire” and now with the “Battle of Jangsari”.
Actor Kim Myung-min plays the role of guerrilla task force commander Lee Myung-Joon leading a group of untrained students to fight in a battle, which is more or less a suicide mission.
The film focuses around Choi Sung-Pil (portrayed by Choi Min-hjo), Ki Ha-Ryun (portrayed by Kim Sung-cheol), Ryu Tae-Seok (portrayed by Kim In-kwon), Park Chan-Nyeon (portrayed by Kwaki Si-yang) as students who fight together in battle and literally become brothers in arms.
Meanwhile, on the American side of things, we see Megan Fox as a fictional character of Marguerite Higgins and Margaret Bourke-White, named Maggie, who wants to expose to the world of what is happening in the war.  That untrained students are being sent to war, untrained, with hardly any food and literally send into a diversionary operation and no one seems to care that these inexperienced soldiers are being sent to be killed as part of strategy by American and Korean generals.
The film shows the differences between the South Korean soldiers vs. their communist North Korean soldiers in a brutal battle, but nonetheless, two sides fighting for what is right and each side suffering loss.
While Megan Fox and George Ead’s involvement in the film may seem unnecessary, other than to add more star power to the film on an International level,I will say that it was rather fascinating to see Megan Fox in a more mature, professional role than the usual banal sex-object that she is often featured in films.
But for the film, the true stars of the film were actors Choi Min-ho and Kim Sung-cheol.
The two are very different in personality but also for why they are driven to fight in this war and learning more about their stories as the film unfolds.
Of course, another major role is Kim Myung-min (“Six Flying Dragons”, “Closer to Heaven”, “Sorum”, “Beethoven Virus”) as the task force commander Lee Myung-joon, who knows that his young soldiers are being send in a suicide mission and his goal is to keep as many of these 700 young soldiers alive as possible.
As for the Blu-ray release, you get a short three minute “making of” and previews for the film. Picture quality and lossless audio is very good.
“Battle of Jangsari” was a war film that I was expecting to be more action/war B-film but it turned out to be much more action-packed and interesting, as I actually learned a lot about the film and had to do research.
And in a way, I was deeply touched by the film because, a lot of these young soldiers lives were sacrificed as a diversion. But also knowing that if there wasn’t these diversionary battles, the world may have been a different place, because on the bigger perspective, the Korean War was not just a battle between the two Koreas, but it was also a war between capitalism vs. communism between America and China.
