a5c7b9f00b During the Japanese colonial era, roughly 400 Korean people, who were forced onto Battleship Island ("Hashima Island") to mine for coal, attempt to a dramatic escape. The Battleship Island was one of the most awaited Korean movies in 2017 and it did not disappoint the audience. <br/><br/>As a total stranger who did not know anything about Hashima Island and the coal mines that were operated by the Japanese during the 1940s, the movie gave me a lot information of that history, which actually made me read more how the Koreans were enslaved during Japanese occupational era. <br/><br/>The movie tells a story of 400 Korean men, women and children who were trapped and slaved to work in a coal mine with minimum facilities given. The difficulties faced by the victims and the power struggle between officials and them are shown in a very realistic nature. The three lead characters are of Hwang Jung-min, So Ji-sub and Song Joong-ki. Hwang is a a bad master who tries to immigrates to Japan but is sent to this island with his daughter. So is a gangster from Seoul who ends up in the same situation as Hwang. However, Song only appears in the movie after about half an hour of its run and completely steels the scenes afterwards. Unlike the others he being an under-cover soldier is sent to the island to rescue a so-called patriotic leader who is trapped. However, things goes in a different direction and all of them unites to rebel against the Japanese officials and flee the island by ship to return to Korea. <br/><br/>Throughout the movie we can see patriotism vs betrayal, power against the feeble and poor which is applicable for modern times as well. I personally enjoyed this movies which I recommend for those who prefers movies of this genre: history and patriotism. Emotionally gripping for me to watch this because I tend to be overwhelmed by what happened to the characters in war-plot movie. The casts were all great and wonderful in their roles, each bringing out one another's best aspects and molded their chemistry throughout the journey in this movie. There were various themes on humanity being touched and carried on as the key to this movie while you are brought into an existential reflection of what if you are part of it in that war-era period, what would you have done to stay alive and what would you have chose to do. Watch this movie without getting too hung up on the political facts but more on being in the shoes of those who had to plough their way for survival. I also like the cinematography of the scenes when everyone trying to escape and working together towards it although I must say the ways certain gun shots shown just a bit hard to comprehend how certain people so easily died while certain just survived. The troubling whiff of nationalist sentiment doesn’t entirely blunt the force and sweep of Ryoo’s multi-pronged narrative, even when the story generally proceeds in fits and starts.
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