When I read that something is based on true story, it usually means that a lot of artistic liberties are taken. Not here. Sure, there were personal things going on, that may or may not have been made up, but given how much the story matched up with what I ended up reading about it after watching it.. It really was a true story. One that tells a story of how actual student soldiers were sent on a suicide mission, as a diversion.
This movie is not without its faults, and one should not go into it expecting spectacular VFX, and that okay, because that's really not the point here. The movie is captivating as is. The characters are very real... to the point, that writing this last sentence brought tears to my eyes.
If you end up wanting to read up on the real events, you won't find this on the English wikipedia. I ended up finding the Korean wikipedia entry for the movie, google translating that, and then starting from there, the article for the actual landing operation, and then the student soldier article. There were a lot of student soldiers... I also ended up finding a Korean book about student soldiers, and that book went into details about the this event. They very closely matched the movie. Some parts may seem goofy in the movie, like an accidental discharge at an unexpected time, but reality can be like that.
This movie is not without its faults, and one should not go into it expecting spectacular VFX, and that okay, because that's really not the point here. The movie is captivating as is. The characters are very real... to the point, that writing this last sentence brought tears to my eyes.
If you end up wanting to read up on the real events, you won't find this on the English wikipedia. I ended up finding the Korean wikipedia entry for the movie, google translating that, and then starting from there, the article for the actual landing operation, and then the student soldier article. There were a lot of student soldiers... I also ended up finding a Korean book about student soldiers, and that book went into details about the this event. They very closely matched the movie. Some parts may seem goofy in the movie, like an accidental discharge at an unexpected time, but reality can be like that.