I am an avid Asia-flick fan and have recently been watching more Korean stuff. And this one seemed like a decent history/action flick from the looks of it.
There are some things that work in the that one, like the decent action and rather fancy costumes. But that's that, more or less it. The movie suffers from the same trend I've been observing in other more recent Korean movies: they try to be funny, no matter the genre (or the consequences)! I just watched "The Tower" (a disaster movie, more or less) and it had the same problem. Too hard the writers tried to weave in some funny parts, but all it did was diminish the movie.
Here we have pretty much the same: It tries to borrow from "Pirates of the Caribbean" and falls short. So, it's not funny all through the movie, neither it delivers as a history/adventure. The characters are bland, the writing is partly awkward (sometimes even bad), bordering on the naive; same goes for the depiction of the characters. Especially the main protagonist strikes me, even though a charismatic leader and great fighter, as child in some instances. Some scenes: face-palm... And for a children's flick it's simply too brutal. So, neither pirate (fish) nor bandit (meat). It also has a Luke-warm environmental touch (the hunt for a whale vs. the greed of man).
As far as the acting goes, it's okay. The sets and SFX are neat. All in all a very mediocre movie not as entertaining as it might have been ("Red Cliff" set a standard a few ears back). But since I know that Korean cinema can deliver much better results, I'll keep my eyes peeled.
There are some things that work in the that one, like the decent action and rather fancy costumes. But that's that, more or less it. The movie suffers from the same trend I've been observing in other more recent Korean movies: they try to be funny, no matter the genre (or the consequences)! I just watched "The Tower" (a disaster movie, more or less) and it had the same problem. Too hard the writers tried to weave in some funny parts, but all it did was diminish the movie.
Here we have pretty much the same: It tries to borrow from "Pirates of the Caribbean" and falls short. So, it's not funny all through the movie, neither it delivers as a history/adventure. The characters are bland, the writing is partly awkward (sometimes even bad), bordering on the naive; same goes for the depiction of the characters. Especially the main protagonist strikes me, even though a charismatic leader and great fighter, as child in some instances. Some scenes: face-palm... And for a children's flick it's simply too brutal. So, neither pirate (fish) nor bandit (meat). It also has a Luke-warm environmental touch (the hunt for a whale vs. the greed of man).
As far as the acting goes, it's okay. The sets and SFX are neat. All in all a very mediocre movie not as entertaining as it might have been ("Red Cliff" set a standard a few ears back). But since I know that Korean cinema can deliver much better results, I'll keep my eyes peeled.