This is one of the best military movies that I have recently seen portraying historical battles from decades past. While watching this, I had not put aside my memories with "Hacksaw Ridge," which starred Andrew Garfield (in the lead role of Corporal Desmond Doss, a US Army medic who was allowed to go into battle despite his objections towards touching a firearm) and was about the Battle of the Maeda Escarpment in Okinawa during the final days of World War 2.
Titled in the West "Operation Chromite: The Battle for Inchon," the movie portrays a fictionalized rendition of the mission code-named "Trudy Jackson," an effort to recruit, train, send 15 South Korean soldiers behind enemy lines. The mission was actually led by an American naval officer named Eugene Clark (Commander, USN - then a Lieutenant during the Korean War). Clark was aided by South Korean intelligence officers and local resistance fighters; these men would then scout the coastal section of Inchon for fortification structures, troop numbers and movements, and seaborne mines that obstructed the possibility of a UN coalition naval detachment to go ashore and eventually take the fight to the enemy.
In the movie, the squad is led by South Korean Navy Lieutenant Jang Hak-Soo, a former North Korean soldier who defected to the "good guys" side due to his father being executed by his so-called "friends." Jang is played by veteran actor Lee Jung-Jae. Based on his performance, Jung-Jae can be regarded as the Korean counterpart of Lee Marvin's (NO PUN INTENDED, by the way) Major Reisman in "The Dirty Dozen," Steve McQueen's Army Air Force Captain Virgil Hilts a.k.a. "The Cooler King" in "The Great Escape" (on the sidelines, though, watch out for that motorcycle scene!) and Brad Pitt's Lieutenant Aldo Raine in "Inglourious Basterds." Not to give much information away further, but director John H. Lee might have borrowed elements from the aforementioned WWII flicks (as well as, possibly, many others out there such as the likes "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List") and modified them for assimilation in the war between 2 nations divided by the 38th Parallel Line 5 to 8 years later.
Lead actor details aside, though, it was the fearless squad leader (Jang) the soldiers that fought behind enemy lines that stole the show. The American allies, on the other hand, were just minor plot devices used to invoke a deeper dramatic feel. For instance, Liam Neeson's portrayal of the famous General Douglas MacArthur (Corregidor, Philippines, "I shall return!" address, anyone?) was, at best, not exactly laughable but typical of the "brawny military leader" stereotype. To make a sound analogy, Neeson's MacArthur is reminiscent of Ernest Borgnine's General Worden in "Dirty Dozen." Also, If the casting were up to me, I would pick Bruce Willis as Willis bears a nearly perfect resemblance to MacArthur!
When it comes to the film's main antagonist, Lee Bum-Soo's Colonel Lim Gye-Jin would put shivers up the viewer's spine every time he is on screen. Lim is an SS officer reincarnated as a ruthless North Korean Army regimental commander. Analogically speaking, he would be a strong (and, I mean 100-proof vodka and martini mix kind of strong) combination of Norbert Weisser's SS Kommandant Albert Hujar in "Schindler" and Christoph Waltz's Colonel Hans Landa in "Basterds."
Overall, I cannot emphasize this enough: "Operation Chromite" is one of the best Korean War movies out there. It stands shoulder to shoulder with similar ones of its kind like "Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War." The only drawback is that the crew operated in a lower budget than the figures estimated for usual war movies.
Final verdict: 9/10.
