My Way (2012)

I have seen this movie three times twice with subtitles once dubbed in English, much better with the subtitles. The movie is fast paced excellent story line,( They always say that truth is better than Fiction!!) and you actually care about the characters, even the goofy overweight fun loving friend Jong Dae Lee who turns out to be an opportunist !! The battle scenes are fantastic and the cinematography and FX are top rate. I have come to believe that Foreign movie makers are starting to outdue Hollywood. The attack scene with the Russian tanks is amazing considering these tanks were 1930's vintage !! The ending will have you sitting on the edge of your seat and at least all choked up if not actually in tears. I know the story is based on actual events and not a biography exactly, but the feelings and emotions it will stir in you are amazing. Watch it and then watch it again. My kudos to the makers of this film a definite 10+ on my scale.

Sorry for bad English.The movie director, of course, is good at shooting epic, bombastic, spectacular and ambitious movie. I like Korean movies - they work hard on making good movies with reasonable budget.But for anyone interested in the history of that time... to be short: half of the movie, I did not know whether to laugh or to cry.By movie story line it looks like that where the Koreans, there is a military defeat: 1. The main character took in the Japanese army - and the Japanese got big issues on Khalkhin. 2. They joined Soviet army - and Germans almost reach Moscow. 3. When Germans captured the main character - Soviet began counterattack. 4. Finally, the main character finds himself in the Wehrmacht in Normandy just before the Allied landings...I haven't seen such harsh Red Army in overseas movies before, thanks! ;-)For whom this movie has been made? Koreans in this movie - stupid, cowardly, slightly cruel. Japanese - very stupid, suicidal and wildly violent. Soviets? Ice demons of hell and Vigil chaos. Germans? (Honestly could not watch the whole movie, but I can assume that meticulously cruel)PS I am going to slight a couple of prisoners Asians because I got into fuss while writing this review... (Don't take my review seriously because if you take this movie seriously you may take seriously my comments too). I will this movie to my collection.

After decades of being fed pretty much only British and American movies on world war 2, globalization is having a great effect on the movies concerning that era in human history. For the first decades after WW2, we in Western Europe, mostly got holier-than-thou movies on glorious Allied victories (Longest Day),fantasized heroic tales (Where Eagles Dare) or pure 'fun' movies (Kelly's Heroes). Even a movie about a defeat (a Bridge Too Far) was turned into a'ridiculing-the-Germans' tale. Those diving deeper into movies made about that dark period in history would discover non-English classics like Das Boot, Talvisota, Come and See and Die Brücke. 'Mai Wei' is a truly epic movie based on a Korean named Yang Kyoungjong. Here are the historical facts about him; In 1938, at the age of 18, Yang was in Manchuria when he was conscripted into the Kwantung Army of the Imperial Japanese Army to fight against the Soviet Union. At the time Korea was ruled by Japan. During the Battles of Khalkhin Gol, he was captured by the Soviet Red Army and sent to a labour camp. Because of the manpower shortages faced by the Soviets in its fight against Nazi Germany, in 1942 he was pressed into fighting in the Red Army along with thousands of other prisoners, and was sent to the European eastern front. In 1943, he was captured by Wehrmacht soldiers in Ukraine during the Third Battle of Kharkov, and was then pressed into fighting for Germany. Yang was sent to Occupied France to serve in a battalion of Soviet prisoners of war known as an "Eastern Battalion", located on the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy, close to Utah Beach. After the D-Day landings in northern France by the Allied forces, Yang was captured by paratroopers of the United States Army in June 1944. This is his story in a nutshell. Reading the above may have taken you less than a minute. Yet the movie shows us this tale in 137 minutes. And much, much more detail and fantasy is added to the storyline to make it a truly epic tale with special effects that more than often put Hollywood's abilities in 2011 to shame. The movie is never dull, never predictable. The battle scenes are what you may expect from an Asian movie. They have a gift for them. I shall not give you more detail and spoilers and I will end with saying if I ever decide to make a list of my 15 favorite WW2 movies, this one WILL be in it.

I will start with the obvious, the story is about a man who fought for the Imperial Army, Soviet Army and German Army but, except for that, 99% of the things shown, and most likely most of the characters shown, never could have happened or existed in real life. It's also filled with jaw dropping anti-Japanese hate. Especially fake are the military engagements and actions shown: a sniper shooting down a Soviet airplane with a rifle shot(in real life the dedicated AA guns had problems with shooting down those soviet planes), the Japanese army having no forward scouts and always looking like children getting surprised all the time, the Soviet machine-gun tankers riding unprotected with the turret opened when charging into battle(military tactics specifically prohibited such things), Japanese fuel trucks bumping the front of the Soviet tanks(while the Soviet tanks were missing them at almost point blank range), magically exploding and even more magically destroying said soviet tanks, and this sort of stuff is only in the first hour of a 137 min. movie. Who ever gave this movie more than 1 star is very much enjoying hating the Japanese, and/or enjoying being lied to, without thinking how physics or the military work, without informing themselves on the events or without asking themselves if that would really work 'in the real world'. Shameful movie, even more shameful propaganda. I don't enjoy being lied to my face in such manner.