Reviews

A time capsule buried underneath a school in the nineteen fifties. Exhumed five decades later provides the gryst for this movie which will put you through the mill, if you let it inside your head for a couple of hours.

I've just sat through it, in the cinema. Nicolas Cage - why the long face - plays Professor John Koestler is drawn into a seeming conspiracy which has shades of menace, terrorism and Armageddon.

This is pure science-fiction. It's stylish, thrill a minute stuff really. There are special effects. Some of them are stunning. A traffic jam on a crowded highway late in the afteroon - a downpour and a stricken airliner suddenly fills the screen. It hits the ground an the inferno is instant. A few survivors, some on fire stagger out of the wreckage. This is as real as you can get, given the screaming multi channel soundtrack.

It all revolves around a sheet of handwritten numbers - placed in the capsule by a ten year old girl Lucinda Embrey back in 1959. Cage's character manages to work out that the numerical sequence is not random, but points to almost every large scale disaster of the second half of the twentieth century - right up to present day. There are three disasters to come. The air crash is the first of them, and his presence on the scene is no coincidence.

Sooon he meets the daughter of the number scribbler - though I must say the handwriting would win awards in any class of ten year olds. Rose Byrne...slim and suspicious at first rejects the Prof. but before long she is 'knowing' something's up. Her daughter Abbie, played by the same lass who played Lucinda in the early scenes.

Menacing strangers in black coats seem to stalk Koestler's Son, Caleb, and a series of black, polished pebbles seem to be emitting messages from a mysterious source..

A hugely destructive 'accident' below ground and an undercurrent of F.B.I. involvement keeps the audience guessing until close to the end.

This movie requires a suspension of belief, like so many others. There are flaws but if you can overlook them, enjoy the effects and the fanciful premise of the plot then it's a rewarding case of 'The Day After Tomorrow' meets 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' If science fiction is your thing, and it's not usually mine you'll enjoy it, but might argue with the ending. I've noticed more and more films having bleak endings lately, but this one offers hope, if not for the more down to earth.

As the two younger cast members gambol in their brave new world they're are left wondering what's for tea, there's always rabbit stew.

I first saw this DVD about three weeks ago - nestling in the bargain bin in Morrison's supermarket.

It was cheap t £2.99...though the packaging looked anything but: and the striking image on the front of the box interested me. Two Korean Soldiers...with different uniforms, stood in front of the massive turbo-prop of an American fighter. I didn't buy it at the time but it registered within my weary , troubled mind.

The word 'Dongmakgol' stayed with me and I remembered to check it out on the internet movie database - a brilliant resource for film fans.

I took the plunge a fortnight later & added it to my collection... ... I've now watched this movie twice in the space of four days. What can I say? Well, it has a most marvellous musical score...which I thought I'd heard before. As time went by I realised it's the same music used in Spielberg's 'Saving Private Ryan'....which I think was shot before 'Dong' but I'm, not sure...we might have a chicken and egg situation here because the films are, in my opinion of equal merit...and I loved 'Ryan' and its message with a similar evangelical zeal.

If you're the type of person who does not mind subtitling and are prepared to invest a couple of hours and more into the cinematic experience then I'd urge you to buy this little masterpiece. I say 'little' but it isn't really...everything about this production says big-time to me. I do not know how vibrant or productive the Korean film industry is but if this example is anything to go by I need to find out more.

Set during the Korean war it tells the tale of some disaffected troops from either side. The Communist north, and the 'puppet' army (according to the commies) from the south who are being aided and abetted by western forces. It's September 1950.

By chance the stragglers find themselves ensconced in a small village, both isolated and remote. It's people are hitherto untouched by war , or indeed much of the outside world. Some of the English used in the captions is quite comical, and there are several smile out loud moments - if that makes any sense. There is also violence, and graphic death by gunfire. All of which is essential to the telling of the story. The contrasting nature of the worlds in collision here...from peaceful serenity and unconditional humanity, to brute force and ignorance.

The innocence and naivety of the villagers is captured by the film's female lead. A delightful teenager who wafts in and out of scenes with flowers in her hair and wide eyed with a simple outlook on life. She's not quite 'the full shilling' yet somehow has a soothing, calming effect on almost everyone she meets. Her sweet, innocent face is a picture of all you'd want to celebrate in this often worrying world.

Also taking refuge in the village is the downed pilot of a UN recconaisance aircraft....brilliant 'crash' scenes incidentally...gut wrenchingly terrifying.

The hostility between the groups is tangible for a while, and an incident with a hand grenade results in the total destruction of the villagers food store. The film constantly surprised the unwary. They all pledge to helping the locals replenish stocks...as winter is fast approaching.

The six who form the warring factions form an uneasy alliance as the story moves on. The simple life of the villagers, and the life they lead soon starts to lull the protagonists into believing they've been there for years! They are welcomed to Dongmakgol.Smiles abound, friendships are forged and the incomers weave their way into the tapestry of village life. Especially after helping overcome a quite terrifying wild boar...this sequence was stunning, yet simplistic and I realised I was watching a master film maker open mouthed in near wonderment. How I enjoyed watching my wife view the same scenes a day or two later...she too was captivated.

The good times cannot last of course and soon paratroops are invading the area ahead of a bombing raid which threatens to annihilate the village and everyone in it. Sacrifice is called for , and the recent arrivals are not found wanting in what amounts to a fitting, poignant climax to a memorable movie. What now emerges is a band of brothers newly united in a common cause.

This is the first Korean film I've seen , it perhaps will not be the last. I loved almost every moment of it & have elevated it toward the near top of my league...yes! it really is that good.

It's set in a northern English town. Which if you're Scottish means the 'south' In fact the location is really north midlands. The nearest metropolis being Manchester or Nottingham. Wherever it's set it's definitely England.

A man with a mission. Revenge. A dish best taken cold.

His brother. A backward lad, that's how his condition might have been described in decade past. Retarded perhaps, slightly simple. No reason for him to be adopted by a gang as a kind of mascot. A trophy fool to be ridiculed, degraded and eventually tortured. Reduced to suicide by the treatment of people he thought had some time for him. His trust was misplaced.

The other victims of the piece: low life, white, drug dealing scum. The kind of people we hear of, but fortunately rarely meet. Who discuss pornography together with ignorant yet carnal inquisitiveness. Who know not the meaning of the word 'alfresco' thinking in their third rate, uneducated minds that it has 'something to do with anal sex'

These strutting , leering miscreants have a problem. The kid, the simple kid they used as a figure of fun, and who took his own life had a brother. An older brother. A Royal Marine Commando.

A man now on a mission. A single minded mission of vengeance. Malevolent vengeance. He knows his stuff.

He walks into his old home town and starts to stalk the scum.' In their faces' in the modern parlance. Making his presence felt. 'Putting the shits up' the first one he encounters. The others, nonplussed at first, then worried, then frankly terrified by the spectre of 'Anthony's brother'

This is as far as I'm going to go by way of a review. To go further would detract should you decide to see for yourself the carnage that descends upon a pleasant Derbyshire town, the nastiest, drabbest & ugliest corners of which were sought out for this movie. The ending is surprising and enigmatic, yet it is entirely appropriate. The script economical the dialogue succinct and full of menace. This is not the Britain I inhabit in the early 21st. century, but it is out there. In the movies there are heroes to take care of the bad guys.

The real world doesn't often work like this but immerse yourself in escapism for a little while at least. This film is superb.

I took a chance on buying this DVD after hearing that Kate Rusby featured heavily on the soundtrack. I like her English folk music style, and as a bonus she actually appears as 'the turn' at a motor-bike rally.A gathering of bikers , camping next to a pub as happens every spring and summer weekend somewhere in Britain.

The film is set around South Yorkshire, I think at first, or perhaps even North Nottinghamshire. A faded pit town, somewhere Mansfield or a dozen others.

The action moves on to places like Castleton in Derbyshire, and the area around Penistone, between Barnsley and Manchester. Ranging from quite bleak moorland to softer more rolling hills and trees.

Colin is well portrayed as a simple man of relatively few words. The ones which spring from his lips invariably involve darts. His passion.

The villain of the piece is a nasty copper, again well acted and the conniving Constable is after Colin's missus.

Mrs.Col, and the copper take off to Blackpool,the 'Las Vegas of the North' and our hero sets off after them on his trusty Honda fifty (step-thru motorbike). The people he meets along thew way, from a predictably friendly group of bikers (the slightly mickey taking reception he got here was overstated)to a letcherous pub landlord really form the heart of the plot. He stumbles across a pack of Brownies on a camping trip, and , rather unlikely is instantly accepted.

The scene where Col's bike is 'taken out was brilliantly shot & totally believable. Though having done a lot of motor-cycling myself his attire was less than adequate for his 'epic' trip.

All the characters, with just one or two exceptions were very likable. From Mandy the overweight barmaid, disillusioned with her lover, and a mother of a cheeky wee actress who brilliantly captured a rebellion in the making, to Colin's wife. She had made a mistake in leaving him, and admitted it, would he have her back?

I should have known anything involving Rusby's music would have a northern English flavour. The essence of the region, from stark beauty, to down at heel urban industry is here for all to see.

Blackpool, the tacky town with such a proud heritage was filmed sympathetically, yet realistically.

All in all a film which improves the more I think about it. I shall watch this several times I think. I really, and heartily recommend it to anyone with a soft spot for working class Brtiain.