THE ADMIRAL: ROARING CURRENTS / MYEONG-RYANG (2014)

Korean foundation story, from 1597: Naval Division; a huge success locally, probably too obscure for foreign markets.  One of those Nation building fact-based myths of heroic forefathers overcoming impossible odds to stay independent.  (Not seen here, but a different angle on the same legendary battle recently out: NORYANG: DEADLY SEA/’23.)  Here with twelve barge-like warships* (a larger battleship, a ‘Turtle boat,’ lost to fire) taking on a Japanese fleet of 300 attack vessels.  Underdog country holds firm against a greater international power!  It’s not unlike Britain taking on the Spanish Armada; a nearly contemporaneous event, 1588.  That European battle largely won by England’s smaller, more maneuverable vessels running rings around larger/slower Spanish galleons.  Here, in a move that has Asian Martial Arts as model, a stronger attacking power (Japan) finds its great weight flipped back at them.  So too with bad sea conditions when a tidal whirlpool turns from Korean obstacle to potent offensive advantage.  The character of crusty, aging Admiral Yi will also be familiar to Western audiences as he’s a lot like Field Marshal Kutuzov who led Russia against the French in 1812 (see Tolstoy WAR AND PEACE), called back from obsolescence, then fighting with scorched Earth policies and tactical retreat.  Such similarities help to give easy narrative access, yet the film misses emotional involvement and lacks character development after its many introductions.  We’re left with a well-produced film that plays like a State-Approved pageant fit for international trade shows, right down to its incongruous Western-style musical soundtrack.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: John Woo brings fantasy & ‘swing’ to his fabulist sea battles and the power of weather forecasting (!) in RED CLIFF.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2010/08/chi-bi-red-cliff-2008.html  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2012/03/chi-bi-xia-jue-zhan-tian-xia-red-cliff.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Those barge-like warships powered by oar, the rowers using a circular technique that’s hard to figure out, impossible to imagine supplying the speed shown.