The Battle: Roar to Victory

Tedious. Another big budget movie overflowing with nationalist, anti-Japanese pride. Japanese are portrayed as one dimensional, evil caricatures.

Lovely cinematography, sets and costumes but I think it could have been a little shorter than 2hours 15 minutes. Lots of testosterone fuelled violence and tension. Nothing graphic except for a couple of fake heads rolling on the ground. No nudity.

Propaganda? Don't know. Factual? Don't know. Does it matter? No. It's a good afternoon movie. Watch it for the action. Yes, it gets pretty gruesome at times, but it's a war movie. Japanese Imperial army vs patriots. Sure it's a bit lop-sided as to be expected when another country invades. There were some unbelievable moments as others suggested, however, watch for yourself. Beautiful countryside, good battles, Fun overall. Only downside for me was the translation to English. It didn't match very well, but I was able to figure out what they were talking about.

Many of the reviewers here seem to take this movie seriously, as though it matters whether it's history or propaganda. I think they are missing the point.

There are movies for which these sorts of questions matter, but this is not one of them! It exists in the same sort of space as a Tarantino movie, like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, or Inglorious Basterds.

For these movies, history is not the point; homage to a certain type of earlier movie is the point. Your villains were bad? Well my villains are worse! Your action was extreme? Well my action is over the top! You used a trope without realizing it? Well I use 50 tropes and am aware of every single one of them!

There are even the usual Tarantino-esque scenes playing with language, in this case an otherwise bizarre scene where the different soldiers all ruminate on their different dialect words for potato.

Given this, does it work as a Tarantino'esque movie? Yes, but... It manages to hit most of the Tarantino notes but I found the wordplay to work less well than in a Tarantino movie, and the storyline+action to be a lot more confusing. Both of these may reflect the fact that I don't speak Korean (so I'm relying on the subtitles) and know pretty much nothing about the country except the basics, so the names and place names meant nothing to me; perhaps to a native Korean these elements fit together a lot better?

Overall I think it's an interesting watch in terms of seeing how other filmmakers are taking and adapting American techniques.

This is a violent and graphic movie about Koreans fighting against the occupation by Japanese and features atrocities committed by them. The action is well directed. There is a feel good inglorious heroism vibe. Some slow parts but don't give up. The last third has some terrific chases on mountains and epic battles.

It is strange how people criticise and doubt the veracity of movies about Japanese atrocities but movies about WW2 atrocities in Europe by Germans are often universally praised. There are only a few movies about Nanjing and a fewer about the Occupation of Korea. More need to be made and watched by a wider audience lest people forget. Kudos to the Japanese actors who portrayed their own countrymen as villains.

Don't go by the low ratings given by others here. A good movie about korean freedom fighters.