taegukgi

WAH. ok hope i got the name correct... taegukgi, or otherwise known as brotherhood. wow. went to catch this movie with ah ting today, had alot of thoughts abt it.

abt how senseless war is. how wrenching it is for families to be torn apart by war. how brave soldiers have to be, and how mentally strong they have to be to face the horrors of war. how everyone become nameless on the battlefield, with evryone seemingly clearly demarcated by the titles Foe or Friend. everyone become faceless, nameless, identity-less. not a much-respected father, not a well-loved brother, not a doting husband, not a bosom buddy, not a cherished grandson, not an excellent student, not a unique individual who has been a big part of smbody else's life.  but how can things be simplified so? its disgusting how a difference in ideology can bring abt such rampant and mindless killing, with such an overload of hatred and need of revenge that ppl who are not yet hurt in battle became automated cold-blooded killing machines or simply go mad. reminded me so much of my history lesson days. but its a very different experience to be reading facts from stacks and piles of notes and textbooks and to be presented with a very visual, very gory, very close-to-heart, very humane, very believable presentation of a war scene. *ponders hard* just feel... very sad when watching the show. i mean yar, i noe tt its just a show, but smhow smwhere smtime out there, alot of ppl have faced the same horrors, experienced the same kind of piercing grief, felt the same kind of excruciating pain. and watching this newly-drafted soldiers charging at the "enemies", i felt a certain respect for them. yes, its quite morbid to be out there killing your own fellow human beings, but it sure take lots of guts to charge in the face of imminent death. i for one cannot imagine myself having such courage. i will feel so alone, vulnerable, scared! and i would be afraid of pain, of being caught, of not being able to see my loved ones ever again.

i find this movie much more touching than just any other typical bloody gory war picture. mebbe cos it focused more on the close kinship btw this pair of brothers (lee jin-tae and lee jin-seok), the fierce, protective love the elder brother feels over his younger brother. there r really pts in time when ur heart just feels so full of emotions: fear, anxiety, doubt, injustice, anger, grief, sadness. a rojak. especially when u see the changes war wrought in evryone, see mistrust creeping into the younger brother's eyes as he watch his older brother metamorphosed into a seemingly heartless, cruel, medal-craving, attention-seeking soldier when in actual fact, he is doing evrythg he can to win a medal to send his younger brother home. i find his love for his brother overwhelming, very sacrificial, very selfless, the epitome of what kinship should be like. its the little simple things he do, like giving up his studies to become a shoeshine boy so as to send his brother to school, buying a pen that his brother liked for him with what little earnings he has, buying him an ice cream, and making him a pair of shoes... little actions that speak so loud.

in this present age, i feel that the importance and foundation of kinship has disintegrated to a huge extent. blood-ties seem to matter much less in the face of wealth, status, and evrythg material and superficial. children can abandon their parents, siblings can fight a raging court battle to decide who gets the largest share of settlement from their parents' estate, defenseless new-born babies can get thrown down into rubbish chutes. what is the world coming to man. how often do we give our daddies and mummies a hug? tell our sisters and brothers we love them? visit our grannies and give them a massage even if we speak their dialect like clowns? not often enough. for some ppl, not at all.

why is it that when the world is getting richer, the ppl living in it are increasingly filing for emotional bankruptcy. sigh. ok i sound so jaded and cynical and disillusioned. haha. smtimes lah, but not always. i'd be fine after rambling for awhile hee.

it always feels yucky to cry during a movie, quite funny, when we adjourned to the ladies' after the show, it was like a gathering of red-eyed weepy girls. not a single dry eye in sight!!! it was like a mass take-out-our-tissues-and-blow-our-noses-after-tt-long-big-cry gathering!! ahhaah. me n ah ting were quite amused actually... =P wahhh ting next time we go watch sm bimbo mindless laugh-like-mad comedy yar!!! i need a reprieve from weepy shows...!

ok time for beddy. my poor aching back...*ouch* i am really aging fast whoa. gross.

 

"This is part of what family is about, not just love, but letting others know there's someone who is watching out for them.
 
.... "spiritual security"- knowing that your family will be there watching out for you. Nothing else will give you that. Not money. Not fame."
 
                                                                                                            Tuesdays with Morrie