Hundreds of Koreans are trying to escape from an island controlled by the evil Japanese. They are forced to dig for coal, but the war is soon over and now the bad and cowardly Japanese also wants to erase all traces of them being there.
The Battleship Island is based partly on true events that occurred during World War II. I have seen many of these movies where the Japanese do reprehensible things, and one wonders why they care so much about honor when we know what they did during World War II. Something has always been wrong, and they deny so much too. I understand why the Chinese and Koreans are so angry at Japan when they don’t take full responsibility and teach their kids at school what they did wrong in World War II. Tell them the whole truth, and let them learn from the past.
I’m a little tired of watching these movies where the Japanese are just evil. You never find many layers in these movies. And The Battleship Island never surprises at that point. But the movie looks incredibly good. This looks and feels like a really big production that in my eyes surpasses what Hollywood is making these days. It feels like you are on this island all the time, and I rarely noticed any computer effects in the movie. It’s impressive when you compare the budget of this movie to big Hollywood productions. It looks so good!
Otherwise, The Battleship Island never offers any surprises. But that doesn’t mean the movie is boring. You mostly follow stereotypical characters you have met in many other movies. And there aren’t so many characters that you care about, as most of them feel like movie characters who are very one-dimensional.
But of course, you want to see the evil Japanese get hurt and humiliated. The Battleship Island offers an energetic and dramatic final act that is fantastic. The action choreography is good, and visually this is a pleasure to watch and listen to! Go Korea, go fighting!