Mai wei (2011) Reviews

• Hollywood lookout

  cpjp5132012-07-25

  For the budget this movie was made on Hollywood could never come close to making such a well done movie. The cost in South Korean Won was 30 billion which is 26 million in US currency. There was never a dull moment in the movie which is over 2 hours long. The acting was pretty much spot on. The battle scenes were awesome very brutal and bloody but not over the top like some of the war films Hollywood puts out. I watched it in English 5.1 the sound quality and dubbing was excellent which is rare in this type of movie.This will be on my favorites list for sure. Ranks up there with Flags of Our Fathers,Saving Private Ryan and Letters from Iwo Jima. Just an FYI the new Batman had a budget of 500 million est.

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• The word Epic redefines it's self.

  gaudi19772012-07-26

  While waiting from Hollywood or American cinematography to blasts away with an adventure of epic proportions heres comes this outsider. The cheesy story of two friends that lives an entire life in war and madness brings out the best in the latest Asian cinematography. Great story,amazing war battles never seen before,enough depth in the characters to make a movie worth seeing,a tight and emotional little jewel from Korea that comes as an outsider to win this year our cinematic addictions of what movies is all about. This movie is Epic in all levels and a definitely miss-not for the cinefils that respects theirself. The word Epic redefines it's self,so simple.

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• Best Film of the Decade, Bar None

  HealthyVend2012-09-30

  I am scared of the thought that I could have missed experiencing this film. I stumbled on it as a recommendation on my Roku via Netflix. Where do I begin...Gone With the Wind meets Chariots of Fire with an overlay of shifting loyalties which purify and forge the pure gold humanity of the spirit through changing tides of war a la Outlaw Josie Wales. I've heard talk of Oscars...yes...give all of them to this film and everyone involved. This is the most astonishing portrayal of actual battle that I have seen in any film. Anyone who thinks war is something cute to watch for entertainment on CNN is going to think again. Anyone with a vague idea of what soldiers and civilians went through in WWll is going to have a far deeper appreciation for what war really means and has meant. Taking the high road under the most torturous conditions possible to human endurance is polished, burnished and weighed in the balance of the validity of the human soul where it tips the scale forever into cinematic mastery. In this sweeping epic featuring little known as well as better known history (at least to a contemporary Western audience), some helpful historical background might be that the Japanese invaded and ruled Korea preceding WWll, ethnically Korean soldiers, hence served in the Japanese Imperial Army. That's all you need to get started. Prepare to be riveted....

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• Epic! Hollywood you're on notice!

  goatbut292012-07-13

  I just finished watching this movie and I'm stunned at the beauty and depth of it. I especially like that it jumped right it and didn't linger on character development type stuff-you learned the characters as it went. What I really wanna say Is that over and over again now it seems that every time i watch a 'good' foreign film, its REALLY good and leaves me wondering when I felt motivated enough about a big Hollywood production to start a post about it. Hollywood seems to have a habit of bashing me over the head with some agenda or specific train of thought and I appreciate how this movie and many foreign movies I've seen similar to it in value and production either hid its agenda from me nicely, was some 'thought' I didn't understand due to historical understanding, or simply tried to provide a visual story to the best of their ability. Whatever the case, this movie rocked and I was glued to the very end. I will be searching for more from this director.

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• Terrific film

  tacitus-707-6635492012-04-25

  I'm not sure why this film is not being promoted anywhere, as far as I can tell, but I saw it last weekend and it's extremely well-done. It's based on a supposedly true story of how a Korean marathon runner ends up impressed into service in the Japanese army during World War II, then is captured by the Soviets during the Japanese campaign in China, survives a Soviet POW camp, then is impressed into service in the Soviet army, defects to the Nazi army during a battle, and ends up unwillingly fighting for the Germans in Normandy during the D-Day invasion. I won't spoil the twist ending, but the script is terrific, the acting is great, cinematography is excellent, and the budget was huge. There are one or two sappy scenes at the very end, the title (at least as translated into English)is baffling and irrelevant to the story, and an Andrea Bocelli closing-credits song is saccharine and inappropriate, but those are the only deficits that keep me from giving this film a ten-rating. Highly recommended. In Korean with subtitles.

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