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Korean war movie Welcome To Dongmakgol takes no prisoners in its bid to warm your cockles. One of the biggest money-makers in its native country's history, this comic drama sees rival North/South troops turning their swords into ploughshares when they're taken in by the world's cuddliest villagers. The dippy sentimentality is so pervasive that even the closing battle scenes are bathed in a mood of blissed-out brotherliness. But lay down your cynicism and this emerges as a likeable little charmer.
From M*A*S*H to Jarhead, comedy tends to get painted black when it's drafted into war films. But not here. There's a defining moment where the accidental un-pinning of a grenade results not in carnage but a slow-motion shower of CGI popcorn. Such whimsies abound in a story that kicks in with the ambushing of Communist soldiers by a unit from the South. Led by Lee Soo-hwa (Jeong Jae-young), the survivors of the attack encounter a flower-haired fruit-loop (OldBoy actress Gang Hye-jeong), who takes them to her remote hamlet home.
"OFFSETS SCHMALTZ FOR LAUGHS"
Unaware there's a war on, the Dongmakgol residents cheerfully welcome all comers, including two Southern deserters and a shot-down US Navy pilot (Steve Taschler). First-time writer/helmer Park Kwang-hyun risks romanticising the villagers' quaint innocence out of all proportion. But the schmaltz is offset by laughs (locals getting on with their beehive-tending in the middle of a Mexican stand-off) and by the wholehearted sincerity of Park's allegorical plea for North-South unity. But maybe a bit more realism - especially in the final stand against a US bombing raid - would've made the message punchier.
In Korean with English subtitles.
Welcome To Dongmakgol is released in UK cinemas on Friday 2nd February 2007.
