My Way
(2011/aka Mai wei/Well Go USA
Blu-ray)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: C+ Film: B-
It was
only a few weeks ago we looked at Flowers
Of War with Christian Bale, a big Chinese epic about the Imperialist
Japanese invading and annihilating China.
Now we have Kang Je-kyu’s My Way
(2011), which is another epic, but this time from Korea and taking place later as
WWII is under way. It makes for a solid
companion for the first film and even goes further in some ways.
When we
join the story in WWI Korea, the Imperialist Japanese is already occupying Korea and it is
not always an easy life. We start with
two very young boys who love to run and eventually will want to do something
with their amazing talent. Kim (Jang
Dong-gun) is a Korean who wants to do run professionally and even in the
Olympics, but politics and the Japanese don’t want that, vying to support a
young Japanese man named Tatsuo (Jo Odagirl) who is connected to a respected
family.
An event
leads to a riot and Korean get all the blame.
The punishment is forced service on the front lines against whomever the
Japanese are battling as just about all Koreas are expendable to them and
their Axis Of Evil fascist cause. First
they fight the rough forces of the Soviet Union,
then things keep taking twists and turns with Tatsuo eventually showing up in
unexpected ways and some amazing battle sequences set against a backdrop of
taking us through lesser-seen, famous and infamous moments of the war.
The scope
and scale of this production is top rate and has the edge we have come to
expect from the better Korean releases.
The actors are solid and the screenplay just keeps building on itself
throughout. There are some moments that
are too long and others that have overlap with other War genre films, but like China, Korea
wants to deal with the past in a bold new way including in their historic
unhappiness with Japan
and that country’s past crimes against them.
However,
this is more than just a “get Japan”
film by any means, but a true epic of great ambition that succeeds more than
most such films of late and one that is not getting the press it deserves. There are also deep cultural issues,
symbolisms and ideas here I bet even I am missing some of the point of, but
even if you miss more than I do, My Way
is undeniably a sometimes remarkable work and is one everyone should see at
least once.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot with the older and somewhat
overrated RED ONE HD camera, but Director of Photography Lee Mo-Gae (I Saw The Devil, the original A Tale Of Two Sisters, The Good, The Bad, The Weird) is able
to push the camera enough to make this more watchable than it might be in the
hands of most, but there are still detail issues, some motion blur and a
stylized approach that stylizes many scenes down. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix
(mislisted on the back of the case as lesser, lossy Dolby Digital 5.1) is at
its best when the surrounds kick in for battles, crowd events, major music
moments and other active events, but dialogue can be more in the center channel
than one would like and some moments can be more towards the front speakers
than I would like. The combination is very
good, but not a consistent knockout.
Extras include
a Making Of/Behind The Scenes featurette, Original Trailers (U.S. Theatrical,
International Theatrical and U.S.
home video release) and on-camera interview with Kang Je-kyu and Co-Star Jang
Dong-gun.
- Nicholas Sheffo
