"Just saw "My Way" -- best WW2 flick?" Topic

I just got back from seeing My Way. This has got to be one of the best kick-ass WW2 films I have ever seen. The film is about a Japanese and Korean guy, both rivals in marathon racing, who are later in the Japanese Army (the Korean is forced to be). They then fight the Soviets in Manchuria, are captured by them, spend time in their prisons, are then conscripted by them to fight the Germans, then are captured by the Germans, and finally they end up fighting and being captured by the Americans at D-Day.

The battle sequences are intense. In fact, a huge part of the film is action. The fights in Manchuria see hordes of Russian tanks versus suicidal Japanese attacks, using human bombs and trucks. In Russia, the mass charges against prepared German lines is reminisant of "Enemy at the Gates," and the D-Day landing is as epic at the one in Saving Private Ryan.

I'm wondering if there is actual documentation on the claim of this film. It is supposed to be based on a true story, and what a spectacular one it is.

Brian

It is based on a true story ( I read about it several years ago) but I did not know there was a movie! Where did you find it?

Link ???

Here is some info…

imdb.com/title/tt1606384

Just had a look at the trailer; it certainly looks spectacular. The director Je-kyu Kang really shoots a good battle scene as any who saw Taegukgi (Brotherhood) will know.

This one looks like it will be as emotionally overwrought as Taegukgi was, which while a bit of an irritation didn't overpower the movie for me, but did keep it from being perfect.
I will be seeing this one, though whether it gets a theatrical release here is anyone's guess.

Just watched the trailer. Looks good!!

YouTube link

Trailer w/English subs.

Just checked NetFlix and it is not available yet.

Never heard of it.

lOOKS GREAT! December 11th I think is the release?

Dec 2011.

After the youtube trailer there seem to be some links to the full movie?

Trailer looks like a wargamer's dream – Japanese versus Soviets, Soviets versus Germans, D Day versus the Americans, holy moley! There's some really excellent BT approximations (I can't tell what the base vehicle is, but the wheels are smaller than a real BT) – it just looks fantastic.
--
Tim

WOW! The battle scenes look great, and they've done a lot of work to have appropriate equipment -- those look like BT-5s and other early Soviet stuff for the Soviet front battle scene. Looking forward to when this makes it to the US on DVD this July!

The Soviet tank attack is awesome. In the story, the Japanese are desperate for a victory. Their commander, and main character, Tadso, planned to surprise the Russians with an earlty morning attack. They would use suicide groups, running trucks filled with gas, into the tanks.

However, The Japanese find themselves surprised and are assaulted by 50 or so T-26s the next morning as they are heading out of camp. The Japanese counter attack; infantry charge the tanks, throwing grenades and performing self-sacrifice. Meanwhile the suicide groups race their trucks into the mass of Soviet armor, destroying many tanks and stalling the attack, and then only to have another wave of tanks come!

Spectacuar sequence!

Brian

I read about this Korean-made movie in the LA Times a few weeks ago. It's in limited release in my area and I forgot all about it soon afterward.

But now that you reminded me, I'm going to drive all the way to Torrance (35 miles from my house) to see it!

Thanks for the heads up. Just watched the movie and it was very well done. Three different theater of war…now you don't see that in a movie very often.

Fanatik,

That is where I saw the film. I went to the first showing and there was only 3 in the theater. All others were crowded into see The Avengers.

Brian

The athletic motif reminds me of Gallipoli (the movie)

Come on….these are way too positive of comments! We need more condemnation and criticism from people who haven't seen it yet!

Checked Amazon.com and it will be available July 24th. Trailers look great! :)

Ok, PKay.

1. The movie makes a mistake in the beginning, saying D-Day was June 6, 1945
2. On D-Day there are bombers that make a massive strike just before the landing. If I am correct, that was done earlier in the month. It was the ships that made the massive bombardment beforehand.
3. The D-Day sequence also had airborn troops being dropped just behind the beach. These were dropped more inland, and earlier that morning.
4. In the Russian City fight, the Germans had a captured KV1 in the background, maybe, but I don't think they captured any at that time. Weren't all the good tanks with the Siberian force?

So some errors, but a great film nevertheless.

Brian

But, Brian (aka Killerkatanas) – you've seen the movie so you can spell out some things you didn't like. A typical TMP movie post goes something like:

Initial Post: "There's a new movie coming out titled "Glory of Furious Valor" starring Mel Gibson as Robert E. Lee in the Antietam campaign! I can't wait to see it!

Response Post: "Mel Gibson sucks."

Response Post: "Why do US movie producers hate the British?"

Response Post: "I'm sure it won't be 100% accurate…I've heard that some of the cap badging is incorrect. A buddy of mine is the historical advisor for the movie, and he said they got it all wrong…"

Response Post: "If you want to see a REAL movie, you should avoid this turkey and go see "Valor, Glory, and Fury" starring Nicholas Cage as a crusading knight, hunting down zombies."

And so on….

At first, I thought it was about Frank Sinatra in a WWII movie, but this sounds pretty interesting, too!

Saw it today. Big theater, I was the only one there :)

*Warning* Some vague spoilers.

It was interesting and it had an amazing twist at the end. Some cool battle scenes. It shows what is possible with CGI now. A shame they didn't have stuff this good for Saving Private Ryan.

But the history could use some work. And geography, too. Apparently it snows every single day in Siberia, year round, even during the summer.

And watching the D-Day scenes with the clear blue skies, calm waters, armadas of B-17's dropping millions of tons of bombs directly on the Omaha Beach defenses, huge fleets of warships, including every single Iowa class battleship, further blasting the defenses and then wave after wave of landing craft in perfectly dressed lines disgorging endless masses of US infantry which scale the cliffs and drive the routed Germans into the arms of the paratroopers drifting down from above. All I could think was: "Wow, what a brilliantly planned and perfectly executed invasion! A shame the real thing wasn't so easy :)

Of course this isn't really a war movie, it's about people caught up in war and how some retain (or regain) their humanity while others lose it.

Worth seeing.

It sounds good, at least better than most….

My impression of the previous movie (Taegukgi "Brotherhood") was that it had good graphics and a dramatic yet not completely unbelievable plot.

The hard part (similar to the invasion scene Scott describes) is that if you knew nothing about the tactics and weapons of the Korean war, you would believe that combat consisted of some desultory rifle fire as a prelimary, and then rushing into trenches to fight out the battle hand to hand. Every battle, every time.

Not available at Blockbuster yet either.

Another inaccuracy I noted was the 1941 battle where the German defenders used MG42's as opposed to MG34's. The PZIII Ausf E mockups looked a bit funky also. They only showed closeups of the mantel and later a rear view of the tanks moving off.

My full review here:

link

David

So is there anyway I can see this film in the UK?

Yes, I've heard about these poor fellows fighting and being captured by 3 dfferent armies … There is a great story there !!

sounds like a good flick to watch if it has loads of action in it

I'll definitely have to check this out!

What a trip….from Korea to Russia to Germany to France….and neither got killed on history's biggest killing fields.

Amazing.

What a trip….from Korea to Russia to Germany to France….and neither got killed on history's biggest killing fields.

Actually, by being captured by the Russians and sent to Europe, they would have increased their chances for survival. Better to fight at D-Day with the Germans than stay in Manchuria and face the Russians once Germany is out of the war. That was Japan's biggest killing field.

Providing that not all of Soviet officers, send to Gulags before the war were allowed to return to the army even in the most critical times of 1941-42 I find it hard to beleive that Korean and especially Japanese soldier were enlisted into Red Army ranks. For instance, in 1937 Koreans were deported from Far East into Central Asian republics (Uzbekistan) Most of the Soviet Koreans were denied even the right to be recruited into Red Army, and recent book about Great Patriotic War lists less than 400 of them who made it to the front, most of them being in the army already when the war started. As for enlisting your enemy (i.e. Japanese soldier) it sounds like a fairytale.
…I might still have a look at the film, though…

I think it's pretty well documented that the Americans did capture a number of Asiatic soldiers in German uniforms in Normandy. And the Germans certainly weren't shy about using foreign troops. They had four battalions of Indian troops captured from the British in the Mediterranean theater. :)

Ambrose references it briefly in his book D Day.

Typical over wrought melodrama, nice CGI, inaccurate history. Not a bad easy to spend a couple of hours.

"It was interesting and it had an amazing twist at the end. Some cool battle scenes. It shows what is possible with CGI now. A shame they didn't have stuff this good for Saving Private Ryan."

I hear Spielberg is getting Lucas to do a new cut where they CGI in a whole bunch of tanks and men in all the scenes. :)

"I hear Spielberg is getting Lucas to do a new cut where they CGI in a whole bunch of tanks and men in all the scenes. :)"

I'd just be happy to see an armada of ships behind the approaching LCVP's instead a big empty ocean :)

okay, whether its true or not, the trailer is absolutely bananas.

By LCVPs, I presume you mean Royal Navy LCAs..? ;o)

"A shame they didn't have stuff this good for Saving Private Ryan."

A Shame SPR had such a dire script. CGI won't help.

it is an interesting movie, especially in the modern Korean/Japanese context.

I think it is worth seeing but the part the director is less familiar with is definitely D-Day. Not a waste of time in any case.

Actually helmet, I found it poor by the latest Korean standards, as well as Japanese. It was your typical turgid historical melodrama, not unlike the crud that some of my fellow countrymen in China churn out. It's basically Brotherhood WW2, which had some really nice pieces to look at but I couldn't sit through the story.

In terms of quality of script, it has nothing on Korean films like OldBoy, The Host or The Good, The Bad, The Weird. All those are not war films, but they were solid stories told well and their narrative structure was more accessible to a western audience.

But it certainly had pretty pictures.

Yes, same actor for the Korean part

And they made this movie at a cost of only 30 Billion KRWs!

Stephen

Got a copy of this and watched it last night.
Great Movie!
Highly recommend.

Yep, the korean soldiers captured in Normandy thing really happened.

link

There was an interview on radio 2 with Antony Beevor about his new book about ww2.
In that he mentioned a Korean soldier (by name) captured during DDay who went on to live in the States.
It'll be available on BBC iPlayer to any doubters in the UK.

I don't know if this is true or not, but supposedly after being captured in Normandy some of these Koreans offered to fight with the US against the Japanese but their offer was declined. If they had done so, they would have fought (or at least served) their way around the world, from east to west, to end up serving against their original enemies.

Japan>Russia>Germany>US>Japan

Too bad the US didn't send them to the pacific to serve in some capacity.

The battle scenes in the trailer look more like Warhammer 40k than any combat footage I've seen. Looks kill if very "Hollywood".

Is the whole movie like that? (at least with respect to the battle scenes)

It is a good movie overall!

Great film, havent seen the guy who played Jun-Shik since he was in Brotherhood, which was another very good film.
Almost as good as letters from Iwo Jima, but not quite.