Front Line, The (Blu-ray) (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	War	Featurette-Making Of More…-Film Highlights Theatrical Trailer-x 2 Trailer-x 4 for other films
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	133:15
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Hun Jang
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Ha-kyun Shin Soo Go Seung-su Ryu Chang-Seok Ko Je-hoon Lee Jin-woong Jo In-gi Jeong Seung-yong Ryoo Ok-bin Kim Yeong-seo Park Seo Joon-Yeol Seung-min Woo
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Pa-lan Dal Young-kyu Jang

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Korean DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     As the armistice talks to end the Korean War drag on, internal security lieutenant Kang Eun-pyo (Shin Ha-kyun) is sent to the front line to investigate possible traitorous behaviour, including colluding with the enemy, in a company involved in bloody fighting on hill Aero-K. Both sides have taken, lost and retaken Aero-K on numerous occasions, and it is important to those who are drawing the armistice line as both sides want it in their territory. When Kang arrives he finds a company reeling with heavy losses commanded by temporary captain Shin Il-young (Lee Je-hoon), who survives by injecting morphine. Kang is also surprised to find in the company his college friend Kim Su-Hyeok (Go Soo), now the deadliest fighting man in the company. The two had fought together in an early battle in the war and been captured by North Korean Captain Hyeon Jeong-yoon (Ryoo Seung-yong), and Kang believed that Kim had died. In a further twist, Hyeon now commands the North Korean forces on the hill.

     The company renews its assaults upon the hill, which continues to change hands. With them, Kang begins to discover that the line between survival and collaboration, truth and reality is impossibly blurred and that the history between the men in the company, and between them and their enemy, is far more complex than he had imagined. When the Chinese join the North Koreans for an assault on the hill, the company is forced to retreat again just as the armistice is being signed. Soldiers on both sides believe they have survived the war; but the terms of the armistice do not begin for 12 hours and the generals cruelly send the men on the front line into one last battle to secure the hill and claim territory, a battle that few on either side can hope to survive.

     The Front Line (original title Gojijeon) is a film about men (and one woman sniper) in war, and it never leaves the location of the hill except for some short sections showing armistice negotiations. The film is about brotherhood in the face of death, truth and loyalty and the dehumanising effects of prolonged bloodshed and battle upon soldiers. As a war film it has its fair share of action sequences as men storm the hill amid explosions and gunfire. This is very much post Saving Private Ryan type action with the camera right inside and around the explosions, bullet hits and falling bodies, although slow motion is not overused. The result is visual, intense and immediate, but the film does allow time to get to know the characters. It is well served by all the actors, who are very good, but my favourites are Shin Ha-kyun, because his character goes through the greatest changes, and Ko Chang-seok as the veteran sergeant Yang, whose expressive face is priceless.

     The Front Line won in 4 categories in the 2010 South Korean Grand Bell Awards, including best film, and was a box office bonanza in its native country. Writer Park Sang-yeon previously tackled not dissimilar themes of loyalty and brotherhood in the excellent JSA (2000) and it is clear that the relationships between people on both sides of the demarcation line is still a hot topic in South Korea.

     The Front Line may not break new ground but it is an intense war film with impressive action sequences, good characterisations and something to say about the human psyche in war. It has been criticised as being too long at 133 minutes and having too many endings; I disagree. The poignancy of men forced into a last terrible battle for a worthless hill when they thought the war was over is heart wrenching cinema, especially as we have come to know and understand these soldiers of both sides.

Video

    The Front Line is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, the original ratio, in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     Shot using the Red One digital camera, and colour graded in post-production, the print looks very good. Battle sequences have been manipulated to evince excessive grain, and focus is varied with jerky hand held camerawork leading to a lack of detail. Elsewhere, however, fine detail is excellent, blacks solid and shadow detail fine. Colours have been washed out and are nowhere vibrant; browns and yellows dominate and even the blues of night or sky are muted. Within the colour scheme brightness and contract was consistent. There is minor blurring with some motion, but otherwise marks or artefacts were absent.

     English subtitles are provided in a clear white font. There were occasions when the odd word in subtitles was capitalised for some reason (not just the names), and “wanna” appears a bit, but otherwise they seemed error free.

     The video is as the filmmakers intended, and is without technical issues.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a choice of Korean DTS-MA HD 5.1 or Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224 Kbps.

     The audio is as expected from a modern war film. The dialogue is clear and easy to hear. The action scenes are loud and enveloping; explosions and gunshots reverberate and the rears and surrounds are full of noise and directional effects as bullets fly around the room and debris falls. The subwoofer provides appropriate support to the explosions and thumps, but does not unbalance the sound stage.

     Music was by Dal Pa-lan and Jang Young-kyu. It was effective without being memorable.

     Lip synchronisation was fine.

     An excellent enveloping audio, doing what it should.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     The following trailers for US releases play on start-up. They cannot be selected from the menu: My Way (2:56), Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (2:15), War of the Arrows (1:38) and 9th Company (1:39).

Making of The Front Line (3:42)

     Unidentified cast and crew talk about finding the right hill to shoot the film plus making the battle scenes realistic, plus some on set footage. In SD.

Highlights (21:45)

     The film in 21 minutes: scenes from the film without comment or narration. In SD and with a number of subtitle errors in spelling. Pointless.

Original Trailer (2:08)

     In SD.

US Trailer (1:51)

     In HD.

    In Australia Region B we get the same release as the Region A US, down to the FBI warning, with US trailers and the same extras instead of a port of the Region B UK or European release as is more usual. That is a pity as the Region B UK release (which I own) has a far better set of extras including an audio commentary by the always reliable Bey Logan plus three extra featurettes on pre-production (33:13), SFX (22:00) and production design (19:42). The running time advertised for the UK release is 128 minutes, but I can confirm the running time is 133:16, the same as the other versions. The extras make the Region B UK the release of choice.

     The Front Line has intense action sequences and is about brotherhood, truth, loyalty and the dehumanising effects of prolonged bloodshed and battle upon soldiers. The film won in 4 categories in the 2010 South Korean Grand Bell Awards, including best film, and was a box office bonanza in its native country. It is well worth a look if the subject, or wars films, are of interest.

     The video and audio are very good. The extras are limited, missing those available on the UK release.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall