I never thought that a big drama that gathered top Korean actors such as Ha Jung-woo, Lee Byung-hun, and Ma Dong-seok could be turned into a bad movie. I have to admire the skills of the screenwriter and director. It’s really impossible for ordinary people to do things and they did it. . If you think it's a sci-fi disaster film after watching "Baekdu Mountain", it only means that you haven't seen the film. "Baekdu Mountain" is dressed as a sci-fi disaster film, and it is essentially a reconciliation film between the North and the South that the Korean film industry must shoot every year. Such classic films as "Common Security Zone", "Brothers", "The Great Hidden One", "Co-assistance", etc. There are also classic films "Iron Rain" similar to "Baekdu Mountain".
The sci-fi disaster plot is limited to the first few minutes and the last few minutes, which is almost negligible. Even if the audience misses the beginning and the end, it will not affect the complete viewing of the film. Ha Jung Woo and Lee Byung Hun are both fixed face characters in such Korean movies. The audience is really tired of Ha Jung-woo's role as the representative of southern Korean petty bourgeoisie who has no ambition and only pursues the happiness of his own small family. Lee Byung-hun is the most common role of a corrupt mid-level and high-level officer in North Korea, and what he does is all for his own selfish desires. Of course, the audience knows the routine, and this kind of character will definitely sacrifice himself at the end to complete the great reconciliation between the North and the South. As for Ma Dongxi's role as a professor without any bright spots, he didn't play his acting skills at all. Ma Dongxi's character is as thin as air in the film, more like a cameo of friendship.
This film can be made into a bad film mainly because the theme is not clear, the positioning of the film is unclear, the director and screenwriter do not know whether it should be made into a sci-fi disaster film? Or a military action movie? Or return to the reflection on human nature of North-South reconciliation? Finally had to come to a pot of hodgepodge, all the elements are added. The biggest attraction of the film on national reconciliation between the north and the south is the conflict of human nature caused by the different social systems of the north and the south. The biggest highlight of the film is the actor-level rivalry between the Koreans represented by Ha Jung-woo and the Koreans represented by Lee Byung-hun. It's a pity that the rivalry of the two best actors in this film is superficial, neither funny nor touching the hearts of the audience. Ha Zhengyu, who is a military rookie, meets Li Bingxian, a veteran who is both righteous and evil. He was played around at the beginning. This plot is even more cliché and the audience is tired of watching it. What's even more cliché in the back is that the veteran Li Bingxian will definitely escape from the hands of a group of rookies, and he will definitely be unable to tell the story if the rookie can't find it! The purpose of this run is to draw out the story of Li Bingxian to pave the way for the ending to be whitewashed. The audience is somewhat fed up with the clichés of the film when they see it here. The filming of Ha Zhengyu and Li Bingxian's rivals is even more nondescript. When they met, Li Bingxian was a cliché and the character actors sparked a spark. After a shootout, the screenwriter deliberately created a chance for Ha Zhengyu and Li Bingxian to be alone. The screenwriter and director instantly Confused and don't know how to shoot. The fight scene in the car was not really exciting. The two of them had no tears for chatting with their children, and even more awkward chatting in the supermarket. That sentence without the eyes on the back of the head definitely left the audience speechless. The director and screenwriter were complacent and thought it was filmed. The splendid opponents' scenes cannot be set aside, and the dullness of the audience watching is a waste of the wonderful acting skills of the two movie emperors.
In fact, this film still has its merits. The rhythm of the film is very tight, and it can be regarded as a passing popcorn movie. But in the tense and fast pace, the director and the screenwriter have to deliberately sensationalize. The two sensational scenes in Ha Zhengyu's wife's film let the audience play every minute. To show that the family is the most important result before the catastrophe can only be counterproductive, and deliberate sensationalism can only make the audience nauseous. Against the background of Ha Zhengyu's wife's deliberately provocative, Li Bingxian's daughter appeared in the ruins in just a few minutes to meet her father and daughter, but it can touch the hearts of the audience. It seems that the director and screenwriter do not understand the truth of moisturizing things in silence. The supporting roles of Tae-sik and the female officer are more interesting, because it is a pity that the film has too few scenes. The film is more moderately black and beautiful in the smearing of China and the United States, and the film also abandons the usual socialist style of Korean films. Korean senior officials are bad guys routines.
The number of viewers of "Baekdu Mountain" in South Korea in 2019 was only 8 million, and it will be less than one million in 2020. In the end, the number of viewers did not reach 10 million, which is an epic failure for a film with a luxurious cast and a large-scale production, and it can also be called one of the biggest bad films in South Korea in 2019.
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