My Way (2011/aka Mai wei/Well Go USA Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: C+     Film: B-

 

 

It was only a few weeks ago we looked at Flowers Of War with Christian Bale, a big Chinese epic about the Imperialist Japanese invading and annihilating China.  Now we have Kang Je-kyu’s My Way (2011), which is another epic, but this time from Korea and taking place later as WWII is under way.  It makes for a solid companion for the first film and even goes further in some ways.

 

When we join the story in WWI Korea, the Imperialist Japanese is already occupying Korea and it is not always an easy life.  We start with two very young boys who love to run and eventually will want to do something with their amazing talent.  Kim (Jang Dong-gun) is a Korean who wants to do run professionally and even in the Olympics, but politics and the Japanese don’t want that, vying to support a young Japanese man named Tatsuo (Jo Odagirl) who is connected to a respected family.

 

An event leads to a riot and Korean get all the blame.  The punishment is forced service on the front lines against whomever the Japanese are battling as just about all Koreas are expendable to them and their Axis Of Evil fascist cause.  First they fight the rough forces of the Soviet Union, then things keep taking twists and turns with Tatsuo eventually showing up in unexpected ways and some amazing battle sequences set against a backdrop of taking us through lesser-seen, famous and infamous moments of the war.

The scope and scale of this production is top rate and has the edge we have come to expect from the better Korean releases.  The actors are solid and the screenplay just keeps building on itself throughout.  There are some moments that are too long and others that have overlap with other War genre films, but like China, Korea wants to deal with the past in a bold new way including in their historic unhappiness with Japan and that country’s past crimes against them.

 

However, this is more than just a “get Japan” film by any means, but a true epic of great ambition that succeeds more than most such films of late and one that is not getting the press it deserves.  There are also deep cultural issues, symbolisms and ideas here I bet even I am missing some of the point of, but even if you miss more than I do, My Way is undeniably a sometimes remarkable work and is one everyone should see at least once.

 

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot with the older and somewhat overrated RED ONE HD camera, but Director of Photography Lee Mo-Gae (I Saw The Devil, the original A Tale Of Two Sisters, The Good, The Bad, The Weird) is able to push the camera enough to make this more watchable than it might be in the hands of most, but there are still detail issues, some motion blur and a stylized approach that stylizes many scenes down.  The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix (mislisted on the back of the case as lesser, lossy Dolby Digital 5.1) is at its best when the surrounds kick in for battles, crowd events, major music moments and other active events, but dialogue can be more in the center channel than one would like and some moments can be more towards the front speakers than I would like.  The combination is very good, but not a consistent knockout.

 

Extras include a Making Of/Behind The Scenes featurette, Original Trailers (U.S. Theatrical, International Theatrical and U.S. home video release) and on-camera interview with Kang Je-kyu and Co-Star Jang Dong-gun.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo