A Reflection on the Great Value of Friendship from The Front Line

Towards the end of the Korean War an uneasy ceasefire is ordered, but out on the Eastern front line of the Aerok Hills fierce fighting continues. A race to capture a strategic point to determine a new border between the two Koreas is the ultimate prize. A bullet is then found in the body of dead company commander of the South Korean army. The bullet that killed the company commander belongs to the South Korean army. Lieutenant of the Defense Security Command Kang Eun-Pyo (Shin Ha-Kyun) is ordered to go out into the Eastern front line and investigate the murder. When Kang Eun-Pyo arrives in the Aerok Hills he is surprised to find his old friend Kim Soo-Hyuk (Ko Soo) commanding troops in the Aerok Hills. Kang Eun-Pyo believed Kim Soo-Hyuk was dead. In their younger years, Kim Soo-Hyuk was a meek student, but he eventually became the leader of Aerok company as a lieutenant. The situation in the Aerok company raises many flags in the eyes of Kang Eun-Pyo. Soldiers wear North Korean uniforms inside due to the cold weather, a 20-year-old leads troops as a captain and the reappearance of his old friend Kim Soo-Hyuk. The countdown to the ceasefire begins as the lives of countless soldiers fall to the wayside...

Above is the synopsis for another war movie from South Korea, “The Front Line”, that expected to follow the success of previous titles in the same theme, “Taegukgi” (The Brotherhood of War), ” Welcome to Dongmakgol” and “71: Into the Fire”. Directed by Jang Hoon, whose last year’s film is the huge box office and critical success "Secret Reunion", a spy thriller that spotlighted the cold and suspicious situation between the two Koreas. And in this third directing effort of Hoon, the former assistant director of Kim Ki-duk, he will again touch the sensitive issue between two countries but from historical view. Though it has been over 60 years since the Korean War broke out, the event remains a sensitive issue for many. Making a movie that accurately portrays this sentiment while also capturing the difficulties that soldiers faced remains a challenge in itself. "The external situations didn't make it easy to shoot the movie, but there was history to be told, and the bigger obstacle is how war movies deal with the topic of war", said the filmmaker. "The Front Line" will take viewers back to the Korean War (1950-53), which is largely known as the Forgotten War, and looks into parts of the conflict that have slipped into oblivion. The script was written by Park Sang-yeo, one of the most demanded scriptwriters from the industry these days. He started writing the story back in 2008. “The film is about a story set up at the end of Korean War,” says Park, “When we look back on literary creations based on the war, most of them tell stories about the first seven months of the war. “It is true that the first seven months of Korean War is more dynamic than the rest of wartime, when North Korean attacked Seoul on June 25th of 1950 and rushed down to Busan very soon. After struggle near Nakdong River, South Korean fought back with help of General MacArthur’s Incheon Invasion on September 28th and made its advance to Dooman River, the far north of the peninsula, which was held back by Chinese army on January 4th of 1951. While the most dynamic narrative of Korean War is from its first seven months, what really happened during the rest of wartime is not well known at all. The film started from this curiosity.” Park previously had penned Park Chan-wook's "JSA - Joint Security Area", which became the highest grossing film in Korean history in 2000. It also concerned an investigation surrounding a fatal shooting incident within the demilitarized zone (DMZ).
Jang Hoon himself is the kind of director who likes playing with genre expectations. His previous film, “Secret Reunion”, sounded like some serious spy thriller on the paper, but turned out to be more of a buddy-movie, about friendship beyond differences. And the way Hoon depicted to us friendship, brotherhood and rivalry in it was plain remarkable. Every single moment really mattered and tugged heartstrings. This new film also sounds like it will have some serious war scenes, but it likely won’t putting aside the psychological drama. The synopsis has indicated this is another friendship story, which challenged by the never-ending meaningless battles. In his two previous efforts, Hoon also successfully entered the world of commercial films that completely out of KIM Ki-duk’s circle of influence, draw 5.4 million audiences to the theaters and becoming a star director. “The Front Line” is a film that started from a suggestion made by distributor Showbox, it somehow will be another test for Hoon to see whether he can handle this bigger budgeted blockbuster steadily. If he does pull it off, it is highly likely his name will always come up when discussing Korean commercial films.

Shin Ha-Kyun and Kim Ok-bin from Park Chan-wook’s vampire film “Thirst” as well as Ko Soo from dark superhero thriller “Haunters” are main casts of the film. This will be first war film for good looking actor Ko Soo who has captured the hearts of many female audiences, set off their protective instinct and caused a ‘Ko Soo Syndrome’ with his soft smile. Ko Soo’s Kim Soo-Hyuk character plays a key role in the victory of Aero.K during the cold war. Knowledgeable and daring, Soo-Hyuk always leads his men with cool-headed judgment to victory. Always at the forefront of combative attack, different sides of Soo-Hyuk will be featured in the battle field. Director Jang Hoon has expressed great satisfaction for Ko Soo’s transformation to portray his role, “When I first met Ko Soo I was worried because there is this aura of innocence about him. How to bring out the Su Hyuk character from him? But when we started shooting the numerous battle scenes, his toughness and earnestness showed up and he changes into the image of Su Hyuk that we want”.
Meanwhile, Kim Ok-bin, who has displayed femme fatalism through "Thirst" in 2009, comes back as Cha Tae-kyeong the shooter, the greatest enemy to Shin Ha-Kyun and Ko Soo characters. Her role is a bloody and cold shooter who's nicknamed '2 seconds' because the victim falls 2 seconds before the gun shot. Thinking about the scarcity of actresses flinging their bodies into action movies, Kim's transformation as a sniper here should be something worth seeing.
A large portion of the movie, that formerly has considered to use either “Before the Hills” or "Battle of Highlands" title, was filmed at Baekam Mountain in Hamyang, Gyeongsangnamdo, a place that became barren after fire burnt down the trees in the spring of 2009. Hoon explains there were no such thing as routes for staffs and actors to climb at first but a new path was made after months of shooting the crew walking back and forth. The desolate image of the burnt-down hills gives us some idea of what kind of color the film will be.



Sources: Korea Times, Kobiz, HanCinema - Photos courtesy of Showbox