Silmido

Korean film is blossoming, from the action thriller "Shiri" to the delightful romantic "My Sassy Girl." "Silmido" takes this ability to make excellent films in a political direction. "Silmido" is to South Korea as Costa-Gavras' "Z" was to Greece: truth-telling about terrible government misdeeds. Unlike "Z," however, "Silmido" is not only shown at home, but is hugely successful, demonstrating the increasing strength of Korean democracy. One hopes that films like "Silmido" are a sign of increasing openness, and better times ahead for the Korean people.

As was the case with "Z," the excellence of the film guarantees an international audience for the story, and the widespread attention may well lead to additional revelations. Although the details of the government plot are sordid, the film romanticizes the actions of death-row convicts, and one suspects that the filmmakers took some liberties in portraying some of their noble and comradely behavior. Nevertheless, an first-rate movie and highly recommended.

Firstly I must say that nearly there is no woman in the movie. Thats make this movie more strict and harsh. As you know the story, this is a hard movie also. You must have nerves like steel to watch this movie without getting upset. I get some stress while watching the movie and after watching it. Because everybody shouting each other and beating each other realistically and periodically.

This is a good movie. A good story. You cannot guess the end of the movie that has a surprising ending. Most of the emotions in the movie is at the tops. Acting is very very good. Effects are also okey,not the best but very good for a foreign movie.

Finally I think,war movie lovers must see this movie.Others with strong nerves also will like this movie. Better to watch before "call of duty".

I like South Korea war dramas, and the premises of Silmido (in Korean - 실미도) seemed to be an absolute winning formulas. Sadly, the film is a major disappointment and failed on many angles. It is far too long, far too slow, far too predictable, far too pathetic, and it lacks any redeeming feature. Yeah, the real events of 6834 Silmido groups were tragic but one could depict them better and less that pathetic. Training scenes are far too prolonged and quickly become a real bore. Dialogs are often empty and also lack depth or any credit to them. The uprising sequence is also far too predictable and suffers a lot from high-blown phrases and long, very long final scene. The good things are again the exquisite depiction of Korean nature, the great camera work and an excellent sound production. Sadly, again, but hey do not deliver the film to a better level and only underline how generally poor the execution is. Can be watched and then discarded

They gang rape nurse and there are several "GAUNTLET" style shoot-outs. All of that would make for an exciting movie you'd think. This movie tells the story of North Korean shock troops that launched a botched mission to kill the South Korean President. It starts off with the soldiers being recruited from death row (a la Dirty Dozen). They then run them through a series of obstacles, but the real obstacles are the ones in their hearts and minds. Now I tried to power through one of these films before "JSA", it gets all muddled down in political and societal dialog. Now "OLDBOY, I COME WITH THE RAIN" I my favorite movies (behind "THE PRINCESS BRIDE" of course). But I don't understand Korean society or politics, all I know there is no witty repertoire or a since of comedy. Nor is there any on my sign unleash hell, or _You NEED me on that WALL, you WANT me on that WALL!" Just reading the subtitles my eyes roll to the back of my head and the next thing I know the soldiers is in a running gun-battle with the trainers.

From the very beginning until the very end, in this totally "male" film (women are visible for about 5 minutes) we see people of different background making choices - often neither right nor wrong, but what is necessary at the moment. However, political and military choices are often different, the latter is usually linear, without so-called second thoughts. Even if the mission is questionable, "politically incorrect". On the other hand, Korea could have been united if the Unit 684 succeeded...

Anyway, the film is evenly strong, based on true events, characters are elaborated and their developments and deeds are logical and reasoned. The cast is interesting as well, even those depicting protagonists can easily merge into team-play and joint decisions, not being stubbornly single heroes as we often see in e.g. US or Soviet war films.

Silmido is undoubtedly for you if you like powerful military dramas.