There were some mighty promises about The Admiral: Roaring Currents. Like, that it's some sort of Korean 300, based on a glorious page of their own history. A tale of 12 ships that opposed a Japanese fleet of more than 300 vessels and threw it back is definitely worth delving into, even if the modern cinematographic interpretation did it as little justice as Zack Snyder's gore-praising action did to the Ancient Greek legend.
Well, from the very beginning it was obvious that we're not gonna get the same sort of action from The Admiral. The budget of the Korean film was noticeably thinner than one of the Hollywood blockbuster, for which it tried to compensate with a typical Eastern dramatic approach: lots of close-ups of faces lit with such intense emotions it seemed the people whose faces belonged to could explode from within any second. Add some really bravado, albeit pretty generic, music to the mix, and you get a recipe for a Middle Age Oriental Molotov cocktail that can't wait to go boom.
Despite this rather pompous premise, the first act of The Admiral is indeed very promising. Every single aspect of the story is telling us that the remainder of the Korean fleet simply stands no chance. The morals of the troops are below the waterline, with the most pressing dilemma being suicide vs treachery. The main hero is old, his health ailing and even his closest aides have no slightest faith in their mission's success.
At some point you start getting restless to finally have a glimpse of any silver lining at all, because the film doesn't even try to speak riddles to you and make you believe it has something major up its sleeve. So, except some pretty watered-down and vague hints, you're left with nothing to expect. Which is a bit disappointing, because, without any promises of a tour de force by a tactical genius, one usually has to brace himself for a showcase of deus-ex-machinas coming up one after another.
Unfortunately, when the action starts, the worst fears come true. You might be hoping to see something very cunning, borderline diabolical, which would explain how that measly fleet of 12 ships could pull a trick the history tells it did. Well, don't hope for too much. Because what you'll see will make Pirates of the Caribbean an apex of naval tactics in comparison. In other words, "they shoot and miss, we shoot and hit hard", accompanied with the same old close-ups of the Admiral, who seemingly manages to blow up enemy ships and pump strength into his men by willpower alone.
One could hope that it's gonna get better after the first tide of ridiculousness goes down. On the contrary. If at first the film was at least trying to explain its strategic thinking, no matter how insane, then after a certain point it all goes haywire. It's impossible to understand what is going on and why the characters do what they do, but clearly the Koreans have some sort of collective enlightenment channeled from up above, because no matter what the Japanese troops do, they fail at sinking a single enemy ship, while their ranks recede with a terrifying pace. And even the dramatic flashbacks of the Admiral sharing some obscure pieces of war wisdom can't possibly explain this miracle.
The anticlimactic finale of this story that was planned as a suicide mission all along tries to distract the viewer's attention from its utter implausibility by throwing in some social message and underlining the importance of the common people. But no matter how hard those common people bow into the camera, they fail to make up for what was supposed to be a really gritty tale of a dramatic moment in the national history of Korea, but instead ended up a pretty cheap and plain B-movie about costumed men muddying the waters with very tense and heroic faces.
Well, from the very beginning it was obvious that we're not gonna get the same sort of action from The Admiral. The budget of the Korean film was noticeably thinner than one of the Hollywood blockbuster, for which it tried to compensate with a typical Eastern dramatic approach: lots of close-ups of faces lit with such intense emotions it seemed the people whose faces belonged to could explode from within any second. Add some really bravado, albeit pretty generic, music to the mix, and you get a recipe for a Middle Age Oriental Molotov cocktail that can't wait to go boom.
Despite this rather pompous premise, the first act of The Admiral is indeed very promising. Every single aspect of the story is telling us that the remainder of the Korean fleet simply stands no chance. The morals of the troops are below the waterline, with the most pressing dilemma being suicide vs treachery. The main hero is old, his health ailing and even his closest aides have no slightest faith in their mission's success.
At some point you start getting restless to finally have a glimpse of any silver lining at all, because the film doesn't even try to speak riddles to you and make you believe it has something major up its sleeve. So, except some pretty watered-down and vague hints, you're left with nothing to expect. Which is a bit disappointing, because, without any promises of a tour de force by a tactical genius, one usually has to brace himself for a showcase of deus-ex-machinas coming up one after another.
Unfortunately, when the action starts, the worst fears come true. You might be hoping to see something very cunning, borderline diabolical, which would explain how that measly fleet of 12 ships could pull a trick the history tells it did. Well, don't hope for too much. Because what you'll see will make Pirates of the Caribbean an apex of naval tactics in comparison. In other words, "they shoot and miss, we shoot and hit hard", accompanied with the same old close-ups of the Admiral, who seemingly manages to blow up enemy ships and pump strength into his men by willpower alone.
One could hope that it's gonna get better after the first tide of ridiculousness goes down. On the contrary. If at first the film was at least trying to explain its strategic thinking, no matter how insane, then after a certain point it all goes haywire. It's impossible to understand what is going on and why the characters do what they do, but clearly the Koreans have some sort of collective enlightenment channeled from up above, because no matter what the Japanese troops do, they fail at sinking a single enemy ship, while their ranks recede with a terrifying pace. And even the dramatic flashbacks of the Admiral sharing some obscure pieces of war wisdom can't possibly explain this miracle.
The anticlimactic finale of this story that was planned as a suicide mission all along tries to distract the viewer's attention from its utter implausibility by throwing in some social message and underlining the importance of the common people. But no matter how hard those common people bow into the camera, they fail to make up for what was supposed to be a really gritty tale of a dramatic moment in the national history of Korea, but instead ended up a pretty cheap and plain B-movie about costumed men muddying the waters with very tense and heroic faces.