Loosely based on the story of Yang Kyoungjong, using the term “loosely” broadly, My Way tells a sprawling story of two rival marathon runners, one Korean and one Japanese, who manage to fight for the Japanese, Soviet and German armies, ending up defending a Normandy beach on D-Day. The film is full of graphic, frenetic and brutal combat scenes that almost certainly aren’t accurate but are exciting.
There are all sorts of reasons you might not like this movie. The main characters inexplicably survive a great many hardships—including climbing a mountain that apparently wouldn’t be on their route (they should have died or been maimed at least three times each), it’s two hours and seventeen minutes long, the protagonist is almost insufferably noble and determined, a woman who had her hand broken in an earlier scene shoots down a plane with one shot from a rifle, the action scenes have so many cuts they may cause seizures, and no matter how many bullets are flying around, there is always time for a heartfelt talk.
But I like it.
I don’t love it because it is deeply flawed, but it is exciting, visual stunning and addresses interesting and important themes about nationalism, the military and why we fight.
It stars Jang Dong-gun as Korean Jun-Shik Kim and Joe Odagiri as his bitter rival, Japanese Matsuo Hasegawa, who will of course come to love him, unless they kill each other first.
However, these two are conspicuously difficult to kill. They both are shot at least once, at the end of one battle they are both blown into the air by some sort of explosion, and both are hung from poles in a Soviet prison camp where, as you might imagine, it is very cold indeed—oh, and they face a firing squad.
Why do I like this again?
They meet as children during the Japanese occupation of Korea where Jun-Shik’s father is a servant, or something approximating a servant, to Matsuo’s grandfather. They meet and race and both become Olympic-level marathoners. Then complications, and they’re in the military.
Complications mainly arise because some organization or individual is treating Jun-Shik unjustly and someone pushes someone, and then there’s a riot. This happens two to four times, depending on how you define “riot.” Too many people nobly attack armed authority figures and start riots in this movie. Futilely punching people who will then beat you apparently shows you’re brave and noble.
Jun-Shik, his friend and comic relief Jong-dae (Kim In-kwon), and Matsuo fight for the Japanese Army and end up in a Soviet prison camp. Korean Jong-dae becomes so much more than comic relief; after being conscripted into the Japanese Imperial Army and being steadily abused, he gains some power in the Soviet prison camp, takes the name Anton and maybe is reborn; maybe he now is in control of his own fate; maybe he is somebody.
Jun-Shik in the Soviet army.
When they eventually begin fighting for the Soviets, they end up in a battle much like the beginning of Enemy at the Gates, where there are Germans trying to kill them at one side of the battlefield and Soviet machine guns shooting retreating soldiers on the other side. Actually, this is pretty much what it’s always like—in three of the four major battles, there is an officer shooting or threatening to shoot retreating soldiers.
During the Soviet-German battle Jun-Shik says this is “dying like a dog,” which is something Jun-Shik is on the record as being vehemently against, not so much dying—the “like a dog” part is what he’s against. Jong-dae (or Anton, he’s not really sure himself) doesn’t agree, and I’m not sure I agree either. Jong-dae’s story is really interesting, and I kind of want to see his movie. When I re-watch King Rat and Bridge on the River Kwai, I may revisit his story.
But this isn’t Jong-dae’s movie; it’s Jun-Shik’s, and he is what we call a static character. He is selfless, resolute, hard-working, resilient, honest, independent yet loyal—any positive quality you can imagine, he probably has. He withstands the myriad abuses heaped upon him because he’s kind of already perfect, so his will is obviously strong enough. And he remains kind of already perfect throughout the movie.
Our heroes are more than a little reluctant to defend the beach
Matsuo is the one who is supposed to grow and change, and we know will grow and change, but he takes an awful long time to do it. He is almost as obtuse as Jun-Shik is noble. He refuses to swear an oath to the Soviet Union very similar to one he coerced Koreans to take to Imperial Japan but doesn’t seem to see Jun-Shik’s point when he notes the similarity.
Their story is slightly more engaging then I’ve made it sound, or maybe than I even thought, because when they finally reunite to run together on a fictional Normandy Beach, I was kind of happy about it. But it does take quite awhile for them to get there.
But I don’t think you watch this movie for the story; you watch it because the action combines elements of Sam Peckinpah, John Woo, Steven Spielberg, Guy Ritchie and the Wachowskis in a dizzying display that you may find too graphic or too fast.
The following clip is one of the smaller pieces, and the movie generally uses slow motion less and images of tanks squashing people like bugs more than in this scene. This sniper attack is violent and starts with a reasonably gross image of carrion birds and dead bodies, so if those bother you, don’t watch this clip or this movie.
Though most of the battles are technically impressive and exciting, the attack on “Normandy Hill” is the most impressive. It is bigger than the Omaha Beach scene in Saving Private Ryan, and may even be bigger than any scene in The Longest Day.
Jun-Shik looks on as Allied ships head towards shore.
Also it is shown from the German perspective, and the Allied assault is terrifying. Bombers, fighters and naval guns hammer the defenses as Matsuo and Jun-Shik scramble through the destruction, and waves and waves of Higgins Boats stream towards the shore. The trailer shows parts of it and is not graphically violent. It is not as immersive an experience as the first twenty-six minutes of Saving Private Ryan, but what is?
The ending is fine; our heroes resolve whatever conflicts they have remaining, while the newly-arrived paratroopers politely wait for them to finish their scene.The movie has some pretty big melodramatic moments. But isn’t Saving Private Ryan also often melodramatic? Yeah, it is, and maybe some if its battles pause for plot points as well, but this one is more melodramatic and has longer pauses during intense and brutal combat where characters talk about whether or not they’re going to die like dogs.
I should stop mentioning Saving Private Ryan because it is a substantially better movie than My Way.
Wait. Paratroopers? On the beach? This movie may well be, as it claims “based on true events,” but it is highly stylized and fictionalized. The “Normandy Hill” they are defending is a hybrid of Omaha Beach and Pointe du Hoc, and anything else that looks cool–and it looks cool. If historical inaccuracy offends you, I promise that this movie will.
But making it a sort of everybeach lets director Kang Je-gyu show everything he wants to show, and he wants to show us the massive machinery of war. He does on a scale that is truly epic, while focused on two men being buffeted about by it. It’s oddly the opposite of and the brother to Overlord, though that comparison may well be giving it too much credit.
Recommendation
Buy the steelbook of The Longest Day and treasure it forever.
If you like the kind of action in the two clips above, you could certainly buy My Way, which I may well do; it is available for free on some streaming services from time to time.