Although Yan Tieyu and Guo Zheyu are the protagonists in the movie, they are more like detectives slowly exploring the truth, and this fact is the coup d'etat in North Korea. China, South Korea, the United States and Japan are all in the clear, and their actions are largely passive responses to North Korea. Only North Korea's confusing political situation is the central thread that dominates the film. I have read some reviewers, and I have benefited a lot from them, but the differences in my understanding are quite large, so I also write them here for reference and discussion.
I don’t think this coup was about power struggles, but a struggle between the main war faction and the main peace faction (as a film describing political struggle, the people in it are not a group of politicians chasing power, but politicians with political ideals , which makes the characters and stories have depth, in contrast, the protagonists who only have national feelings in their hearts seem a little petty.). Guo Zheyu said that Li Taihan is a representative of the hard-line faction, that is, the main battle faction. Yan Tieyu said that the chairman used nuclear weapons to consolidate the regime and did not intend to use them for the republic. This is exactly the understanding of the Lord Peace faction under the values of the main war faction. Therefore, the chairman of the committee is the leader of the Lord Harmony faction. And Li Taihan should not be the leader of the main war faction, because Guo Zheyu said that the coup was originally launched by the army, not the intelligence department. Lee Taehan should only be the executor of the coup d'état, not a leader. The leader behind him should be the military high-level who controls the main force of the North Korean army. Judging from Park Dongguang's later action in South Korea and the black box recording, he should be the Lord and Pai, and his role is similar to that of Lee Taehan, who is the executor of the action.
Due to the fierce contradiction between the main war faction and the main peace faction, conflict is inevitable. The Chairman's Juhe faction attempted to carry out a "large-scale purge operation" against the main war faction, and members of the Juhe faction who controlled Pyongyang's army, Kim Doo-won and Park Dongguang, were the main executors of the operation. The main war faction, smelling the tense breath, tried to preemptively launch a coup d'état. The goals of the coup were two, one was to assassinate the executors of the Juhe faction to eliminate a temporary threat to their own security, and the second was to create a decisive event to declare war on South Korea, forcing the chairman to declare war. For the main fighter, killing the chairman is more harmful than beneficial. So there is no plan to assassinate the chairman.
The first action of the main fighters seemed to be a success, they succeeded in killing Jin Douyuan and forged a car accident. Their coup was not a rebellion, so disguise was necessary. But in the whole situation, this is by no means a good move. Because it is impossible for the Lord and Pie to think that this was really an accidental car accident. So they got into action right away. Park Dongguang canceled the trip to Kaesong and killed the core figures of the main battle faction in just half a day. At this point, the Lord Peace faction has gained a decisive advantage. In the final analysis, this was caused by the ill-planned main battle faction itself.
But Lee Taehan, the executor of the main war faction, was very smart. He had foreseen this possibility before he acted, so when he learned that Park Dongguang had started to act, although he was also very nervous, he said, "It's the one who doesn't. Can". According to the original plan, after the assassination of Jin Dooyuan, it was necessary to assassinate Park Dongguang, who came to Kaesong to participate in the event, and hijack an American chariot to disguise it and open fire on North Korea. I don't think the planned target of the attack is Kaesong, it's just a random attack. Otherwise, Park Dongguang could have been killed, and Yan Tieyu's sniping was unnecessary. And the patriotism of the main war faction will not have the heart to open fire on the people of their own country.
For the new situation, I think Li Taihan has estimated, although he thinks this is only a possibility, and he does not want to see it. But he carefully planned for this new situation. He made a wonderful and dangerous move that completely turned the tide. He aimed the hijacked chariot at the Kaesong meeting place where the chairman was, and fired a missile. Although this action caused damage to the people, it also made the reason for declaring war more sufficient (due to the special nature of Kaesong, China will also be involved in it), plus the reason for attacking the supreme leader, created A near-perfect casus belli. At the same time, this reduced the difficulty of assassinating the chairman, and created a camouflage.
For Lee Tae-han, this new situation made it necessary for him to kill the chairman, not Park Dong-kwang, in order to salvage the defeat. Because the core person on his side has died, his own strength cannot save the defeat at all. After the death of the chairman, he and Park Dongguang, the two original pawns, became the coaches of both sides. Park Dongguang controls Pyongyang, and he controls the main force on the border between South Korea and North Korea. Back to evenly matched, and a little in his favor.
Both Lee Taehan and Park Dongguang thought that the chairman of the committee was dead. Under this high-tech situation, Park Dongguang, who occupied Pyongyang, had a temporary agency over the country. Declaring war on South Korea was the only move he could take, although that was somewhat ironic for a master and pie. On the one hand, it is because of the shelling and the death of the chairman; on the other hand, he needs to use this to contain the military forces on the front line to prevent it from attacking Pyongyang. At this time, he was powerless to pacify the civil unrest.
Knowing that the chairman is still alive is very important to both Lee Taehan and Park Dongguang. Li Taihan must kill him, no matter how difficult it is, this is what he must do. Compared to the previous actions, both assassinations in Korea were weak and sloppy (in reality, the second assassination is almost impossible, say more, because the movie always tries to exaggerate Lee Taehan's strength to show The protagonist is weak, so there is a dramatic effect, but sometimes it is not the protagonist alone but South Korea facing Lee Taehan, which makes the power of North Korea exaggerated in the two assassination operations against the South Korean government in South Korea). If the assassination failed, he could only fight with the belief of mortal. Guo Zheyu used the fake news that the chairman was dead to appease Li Taihan and bought time.
For Park Dongguang, the news that the chairman is still alive is a life-saving straw. That's why he couldn't wait to go to Korea in person. In addition to attaching importance to the rescue of the chairman, there is also an attempt to show his true attitude and reach a peace agreement with South Korea. (I saw that everyone was very interested in what he said before he died. I don’t think there is much complexity here. He regards Yan Tieyu as the assassin, so death is inevitable, and not only his own death, It is the destruction of the political power of the party he represents, and those words contain calmness and despair at the same time.)
After Park Dongguang's death, Lee Taehan could finally enter Pyongyang, and as the only survivor, became the ultimate master. Throughout this process, the possibility that Li Taihan has been planning step by step for this result cannot be ruled out. But at least in the beginning, the two were by no means the protagonists of the North Korean political scene. The other North Korean politicians in the film are so blurry that it's easy to narrow our view to just the two of them without looking at the bigger picture.
According to the above understanding. I don't think there are serious logical loopholes in the whole plot, but it is indeed a bit vague in expression. I feel that I have some doubts in two places. If there is a reason that I don't fully understand, I hope I can get an answer.
One is why the chairman went to Kaesong. In such a special period, the risks in public places should usually be reduced, and the border areas controlled by the main fighters should be taken. To take a step back, even if it went, it should be very accidental. But Li Taihan did not show surprise, and later careful actions showed that this situation had been expected.
The second is that the role of Cui Zhemin is too vague (mentioned in 91 minutes, that kid Park Dongguang became Cui Zhemin's subordinate.) This person should have more power than Park Dongguang, and it is very likely that he is in Pyongyang. In this way, Lee Taehan could not ignore his power and go straight back to Pyongyang to declare himself the master of North Korea. It may also be that I didn't look carefully enough to find this person appearing or being mentioned in other scenes. I think it would be better to delete that part of the conversation about him.
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