Keywords: naval battle, korea, japan, historical
Audience: PG-13
Violent content: lots of blood, beheaded heads
Sexual content: none
See
Roaring Currents in Korea Indonesia Film Festival (October 23rd-28th, 2014)
I went to see Roaring Currents last night. It's a great movie about a legendary naval battle (South Korea vs Japan, 1597,
find out more) with the Korean fleet led by Admiral Yi Sun Sin (Choi Min Sik). Somewhere in the middle of the movie I fell asleep (too much drama about whining soldiers), but the naval battle was so captivating. Admiral Yi is a beast, yet the movie pictures him very humanly. My favorite part is how the movie theme, "loyalty", gets wrapped up nicely in the end.
Admiral Yi was a leader prone to disobey order. Although he always did it to protect Joseon Kingdom, the chancellor was angered and sent him for torture. Soon the raging war required everyone to stand up for Joseon and Yi was once again an admiral. And once again, instead of following the chancellor's order, Yi led his fleet to do what he thought as imminent: to protect Myeongnyang Strait. He calculated, and later his spy confirmed, that a large Japan fleet was coming. "To give up on sea is to give up on land," said Yi (more or less). Being outnumbered by far, Yi's soldiers were full of doubt. Fear spread like virus while the enemy was approaching fast.