Synopsis
In 1951 ceasefire is declared, but two remaining armies fought their final battle on the front line Towards the end of the Korean War, a South Korean battalion is fiercely battling over a hill on the front line border against the North in order to capture a strategic point that would determine the new border between two nations. The ownership of this small patch of land would swap multiple times each day. Kang is dispatched to the front line in order to investigate the tacit case that’s been happening there.
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Cast
- Shin Ha-kyunKang Eun-pyo
- Go SooKim Soo-hyeok
- Lee Je-hoonShin Il-young
- Ryu Seung-suOh Gi-yeong
- Ko Chang-seokYang Hyo-sam
- Lee Da-witNam Seong-sik
- Ryu Seung-ryongHyeon Jeong-yoon
- Kim Ok-vinCha Tae-kyeong
- Cho Jin-woongYoo Jae-ho
- Jeong In-giLee Sang-eok
Recommendations
- 83
Entertainment Weekly
This strong, assured Band of Brothers-style drama from director Jang Hun makes universal points about bonding, misery, loyalty, and the senselessness of war through a portfolio of soldiers. - 75
The A.V. Club
The action in The Front Line is bloody and tense, but the movie also reduces war to its simplest terms, defining it in terms of the reluctant soldiers who know that only accidents of birth and location determined which side of the battlefield they inhabit. - 75
New York Post
As North Korea undergoes a highly publicized change of leadership, The Front Line proves timely. In fact, one of the movie's army commanders looks like the north's new baby dictator, Kim Jong-un. - 70
Village Voice
Tightly directed and well acted (even though many characters are cut-outs from every war movie you've ever seen), The Front Line shoehorns little known history into a familiar format, and it works. - 65
Movieline
What ultimately makes the film compelling is the extent to which it uses the shared language of cinema to telegraph the caustic feelings of a people toward their own history. - 60
The New York Times
A movie that reserves its final sickening wallop for a grueling half-hour that leaves you as emotionally battered as the soldiers are forced to return to hell for one last senseless round. - 50
Slant Magazine
Both brutal and sentimental, this Oscar-submitted Korean war drama offers up rusty tropes as telling ironies. - 50
Los Angeles Times
Jang and screenwriter Park Sang-yeon recognize the situation's senselessness but can't resist ramping up the melodrama and celebrating the heroism of the battle-fatigued soldiers. These contradictory impulses, combined with the film's undercooked characters, make The Front Line a war movie not quite worth engaging.
