Asian Movies - War of the Arrows

War of the Arrows is a South Korean movie about betrayal, love and war. Loss of a father under those circumstances would probably define anyone's life. This is a movie set in the past where honor and bow and arrows were pretty much everything a man had. A suddenly orphaned brother and sister adopted by their late father's best friend turned out to be very different from each other. The brother was pretty much a looser and a fool, while the sister was a proper young lady. The binding of the two families though marriage was something that her brother could not deal with. The brand of the traitor was a mark that never faded in his mind. Things really got out of hand after the sudden attack on their village. It was the moment Nam-yi was trained for as a skilled archer and hunter. I must admit it really was a treat watching him hunt them down one by one. Those were some seriously cruel times when it totally sucked being an ordinary person without fighting skills. The transition between a traitor's son to a hero was something that was forced on him by the circumstances, not something that he was striving for. His taken sister was his only goal and it was really noble of him. The action parts were nice, especially since the preferred weapons were bows and arrows with an occasional sword here and there. All the running, hiding, ambushing and fighting really sucks you in and you live though it alongside the characters. War of the Arrows is a good movie that should be watched.

Plot

The film begins with two children Nam-yi and Ja-in being chased by King Injo's guards and saved by their father Choi Pyeong-ryung, an officer of King Gwanghae and a skilled archer. He sends his own children to find a place of refuge with his best friend Kim Min-soon. As they escaped crying, Ja-in begged her brother to go back to their father but their father was killed in front of Nam-yi. Nam-yi, though bitten by the guard dogs, kills them and escapes with Ja-in. Nam-yi becomes the only family Ja-in has. 13 years later Nam-yi (Park Hae-il) is now a skilled archer and hunter. He learns from Min-soon's son Seo-goon (Kim Mu-yeol) that he and Ja-in (Moon Chae-won) plan to get married, with the approval of Min-soon who is also Ja-in's godfather.
During the wedding, Nam-yi is up in the mountains hunting deer. He hears the rumble of the invading forces. When Nam-yi makes it back to the village, he finds his step-father slaughtered and his sister taken away. Nam-yi then sets out to find the Qing army and take out their army with his bow. The great commander of the Qing army, Jyuushinta (Ryoo Seung-ryong) discovers the mysterious man trailing his men and taking them out one by one. Jyuushinta then sets out to find Nam-yi. A war of arrows is set to begin and Nam-yi prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice...

Director: Kim Han-min
Writer: Kim Han-min
Running time: 122 minutes
Release Date: August 11, 2011
Language: Korean
Country: South Korea