The Front Line   Starring: Shin Ha-kyun, Go Soo, Ryoo Seung-soo and Ko Chang-seok Cine-Asia RRP: £17.99 SBX363 Certificate: 18 Available 27 February 2012

In the closing days of the Korean War, with partition imminent, each foot of land attains a position of equal prominence, with both sides trying to maximise their strategic advantage. Kang Eun-Pyo, a Lieutenant in the Defence Security Command, is ordered to go to the Aerok Hills, where fighting is still fierce, to investigate the death of a commander who has been killed with a bullet from his own side...

The Front Line (2011 - 2 hrs, 07 min, 49 sec) is a historical war film directed by Hun Jang, from a Sang-yeon Park script. The film has been put forward for this year’s (2012) Oscars, having already won a couple of awards and been nominated for numerous others.

What starts off looking like a straightforward film about communist infiltration into the South Korean Army becomes a much more complex proposition in Park’s script. Even as they are killing each other over a strategically important hill, there is both a humanity and connection between soldiers on both sides, which goes beyond and deeper than just pure collaboration. Between comradeship and combat the film explores both the highs and lows of human war experience, allowing a touch of humanity to break through the surrounding horror.

The film is tightly directed, with some truly beautiful cinematography from Woo-hyung Kim. Ha-kyun Shin (Kang Eun-Pyo) acts as the audience's eyes as we experience the odd spectacle of two sides meaninglessly fighting over the same hill. Even though a truce is in effect, the war has in fact ended, although a strange rule of battle allow both sides to go on fighting for another day. With this premise we have much that will feel familiar, in structure, to many other war films. We are introduced to the men, who are barely holding it together, knowing that they have to continue the meaningless battle.

The director uses much humour to get us to empathise with the soldiers plight, before killing many of them off, obviously emphasising the meaninglessness of their last push. It’s not original and has been seen in previous films, but that is not to say that it has not been done well here. Some particularly nice touches include the exchange of presents between the two sides, as each side take a foxhole. It leaves something behind, knowing its ownership is temporary as the land goes back and forth between the combatants.

As befits the entry into this year's Oscars, the film comes with an impressive set of extras. There is the inevitable Making Of (3 min, 50 sec) which is disappointingly short on both times and content. Slightly better is Aero-K Hill: Action and SFX, Making Of (22 min), which covers the technical aspects of the film's special effects, with large amounts of behind-the-scenes footage of the film being made.

A Daily Record of Battle - Making of Production (33 min, 14 sec) and we are in the area of trying to make the battle scenes as convincing as possible, with cast and crew discussing the choreographing of the epic battle. Lastly, on the disc is, Ceasefire Agreement - Production Design (19 min, 42 sec), which unsurprisingly takes a look at the various aspects of production design for a period piece.

The film is presented with both a Korean 2.0 and 5.1 audio track and whilst the 2.0 is nice and clear, for a war movie the 5.1 is the way to go. There are also English subtitles and the usual insightful full length commentary from Asian expert Bey Logan. The trailer galley has both the English and original Korean trailers. The print is surprisingly sharp for a DVD, with high levels of detail in both the battle scenes and the more sedate views of the countryside awash with flurries of snow.

7

Charles Packer