The Battleship Island movie review (2017)
Seriously, why this guy, and not Hak-chul Yoon (Kyoung-young Lee), a political prisoner who is believed to be the Korean resistance's only hope of defeating the Japanese? Gang-ok's story dovetails with Yoon and his disciples' attempt at escaping Hashima Island. But "Battleship Island" is ultimately Gang-ok's story because we can observe just how good he is while Yoon only rallies people around him using demagogue-like speeches. Ryoo's film is, in that sense, more of a reaction to than a straight-up rehash of Spielberg's war dramas. Characters are routinely reduced to their human needs, whether it's using the bathroom, or finding ways to feed themselves. They lick dynamite sticks for extra food, and praise the emperor in order to curry favor with their jailers. They are not heroes, just survivors.
In this context, sensational displays of violence and cruelty are understandably the norm, though that doesn't make them any more palatable. Ryoo's emphasis on beatings, explosions, and prostitution will test viewers taste for his film's thoughtful, but sometimes viscerally upsetting worldview. On a basic level, "Battleship Island," as war movie, is most striking for its tendency of defining the human experience through suffering and endurance. Which is striking on an intellectual level, but another thing entirely when you're watching extras get mowed down in visually striking, exceptionally well-choreographed set pieces. The film's big D-Day-style prison-yard escape climaxes with a death so gratuitously violent that it left this gorehound feeling a little uncomfortable.
That having been said, while "Battleship Island" is sometimes unpleasant to watch, it is a consistently involving, atypically thoughtful crowd-pleaser. Just look at the way that Ryoo uses music as a critical expression of nationalistic resistance. Gang-ok and his band play Japanese military anthems to flatter their captors. But their real calling is playing jazz music. This might lead you to think that the film will climax with an explosive set piece scored by a jazz standard. Instead, "Battleship Island" climaxes with the above-mentioned prison-yard free-for-fall, scored by "The Ecstasy of Gold," perhaps the second most famous piece of music composed by Ennio Morricone. It's a brazen callback that pushes the boundaries of good taste and intellectual credulity. But it makes perfect emotional sense. "Battleship Island" is that rare war movie that's as thoughtful as it is bold.
