Prisoners of War (2011)

In World War II-era Korea, rival runners, one Korean (Jang Dong-gun) and one Japanese (Joe Odagiri), go to war together against the Soviets.

Director:

Je-kyu Kang (as Je-gyu Kang)

Writers:

Je-kyu Kang (as Je-gyu Kang), Byung-in Kim (screenplay)

Stars:

Dong-gun Jang, Joe Odagiri, Bingbing Fan

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Dong-gun Jang	...	Jun-shik Kim
Joe Odagiri	...	Tatsuo Hasegawa
Bingbing Fan	...	Shirai
In-kwon Kim	...	Lee Jong-dae
Hee-won Kim	...	Chun-Bok
Tae-kyung Oh	...	Kwang-Chun
Kwak Jung Wook	...	Min-Woo
Shi-hoo Kim	...	Tsukamoto
Ho-jin Chun	...	Jun-shik's Father
Yun Hui-won	...	Son Ki-Jung
Tarô Yamamoto	...	Noda
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Michael Arnold	...	Father
Michael Frederick Arnold	...	Russian Soldier
Ismail Deniz	...	Shuo / Karim
Ji-han Do	...	Jun-Sik (teen)

Storyline

Inspired by a true story. Jun Shik works for Tatsuo's grandfather's farm while Korea is colonized by Japan, but he has a dream to participate in Tokyo Olympics as a marathon runner. Tatsuo also aims to become a marathon runner, so the two are in rivalry. But war breaks out and they both are forced to enlist in the army. Tatsuo becomes the head of defense in Jun Shik's unit and he devises a scheme but fails. Jun Shik and Tatsuo are captured by the Soviets. They run away but soon are captured by Germans and forced to separate. In 1944, they meet again at the shores of Normandy.

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Taglines:

In a world at war, my enemy is my salvation.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | History | Sport | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for intense realistically graphic sequences of war violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan] Official site [South Korea]

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean German Japanese Mandarin Russian English

Release Date:

20 April 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

Prisoners of War

Filming Locations:

Latvia

Box Office

Budget:

KRW 30,000,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$17,817 (USA) (20 April 2012)

Gross:

$67,330 (USA) (18 May 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Directors, SK Planet, CJ Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

137 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The German officer addressing the German troops at Normandy is played by former German judoka Alexander von der Groeben (billed in the closing titles as Alexander Graf von der Groeben). Participant of the Olympic Games 1984 and 1988, and two times European champion in 1984 and 1985.

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Goofs

In the opening marathon scene, the American flag shown on the side of the road is the 50-star version introduced in 1960; during the 1948 Olympics, the flag would have been identical to that used in WWII with 48 stars. In the closing marathon scene, one of the marathoners (#198) has a Canadian maple leaf flag on his jersey which was not Canada's flag until 1965.

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Connections

Referenced in Vampire Idol: Vampire Jean Valjean (2011)

User Reviews

Epic! Hollywood you're on notice!

I just finished watching this movie and I'm stunned at the beauty and depth of it. I especially like that it jumped right it and didn't linger on character development type stuff-you learned the characters as it went.

What I really wanna say Is that over and over again now it seems that every time i watch a 'good' foreign film, its REALLY good and leaves me wondering when I felt motivated enough about a big Hollywood production to start a post about it.

Hollywood seems to have a habit of bashing me over the head with some agenda or specific train of thought and I appreciate how this movie and many foreign movies I've seen similar to it in value and production either hid its agenda from me nicely, was some 'thought' I didn't understand due to historical understanding, or simply tried to provide a visual story to the best of their ability.

Whatever the case, this movie rocked and I was glued to the very end. I will be searching for more from this director.