The Fortress

Hard to watch such suffering for power and greed, but script production, direction, and most certainly the acting made it worth my while. Kudos again Korea!

Enjoyed this as it's not black and white morally and you genuinely don't know where it's going. A bit of a gem actually.It's quite brutal in parts but not gratuitously as it is about a very desperate battle.

The Fortress is a good historical war movie. The portrayal of the 2 sides seems historically accurate. It paid attention to details. A huge feat this movie accomplished is that the Qing side speaks Manchu instead of Korean or Chinese, as Manchu is an almost extinct language today. This fact alone bring immersion into the world of 1600s. The movie, while showing a major historical event, and portraying from the Korean perspective, attempts to take no side emotionally from the 2 warring parties. There's no demonizing of the Qing forces or glorifying of the Korean resistance. This brings more universality in the story line. Great movie for history buffs.

That gloomy sentiment, beyond the plot, is also perfectly represented via cinematography and sound design, granting The Fortress the uniquely dark aesthetic of showing us history from the side of the losers.

Josean (Korean) King Injo (Park Hae-il) is being attacked by the Qing, led by the Khan. He retreats to a mountain fortress in deep winter, and listens as Interior Minister Choi (Lee Byung-hun) argues with the Prime Minister (Sung Hyun-soo) about whether to negotiate or fight. Meanwhile, the fortress villagers and soldiers, including blacksmith- turned-recruit Nal-soe (Go Soo) and his brother are slowly starving and freezing to death, and it is turning out to be a long, long winter.... This film is based on Korean history in the 17th Century, when China ruled much of the peninsula and in turn was being menaced by the Qing, the forces of Genghis Khan's empire. Overall, "The Fortress" points out the futility of war and, a bit unexpectedly, also that life in the end will prevail (just not for everyone). The film is quite long at about 2 1/2 hours, but it's beautifully drawn and especially interesting to see in the middle of a very hot summer; all the scenes of snowstorms made me feel a tad chilly, even!