The Admiral: Roaring Currents

The Admiral: Roaring Currents (Myeong-Ryang) (2014)

Runtime: 128 minutes

Directed by: Han-Min Kim

Starring: Min-Sik Choi, Seung-Ryong Ryu, Jin-Woong Jo, Myung-Gon Kim, Ku Jin

From: Several South Korean companies

It's been awhile since I've seen a South Korean film; as this one will be gone from Netflix Instant in a matter of hours, this is what I went with. It's pretty good, as I explain below:

As sometimes happens, I only see a film because it's about to leave Netflix Instant. That was the case here with this film, which will be gone in a matter of hours from when I post this. It's still the most popular domestic release in the history of the South Korean box office so it obviously resonated with the citizens as it told a real life tale where in 1597 a fleet of only 12 ships did battle with over 300 invading ships from Japan and because of the currents in the water and other factors, it was not a mismatch like it first appeared to be.

Now, the story would be stronger for me if I was more familiar with the various key figures you see, both from Korea and Japan, not to mention the whole “nationalistic pride” thing. Even with that caveat, I was able to genuinely figure out what was going on. Only a little bit of the focus was on the Japanese side; I understand but I wouldn't have minded this be longer and have the attention be more equal; considering the box office performance, the producers did things the right way.

Anyhow, the focus is on Korean Admiral Yi Sun-Shin as he does some rather harsh things to motivate his troops to do battle against the Japanese despite overwhelming odds. Yet, those troops did need motivating so the Admiral does not come off badly. The second half of the movie is almost all action as it's devoted to the big battle on the seas and it's all pretty exciting and some of the violence is pretty badly... although not as gruesome as you see in some films from the country. While not the best I have seen from South Korea by any means, it is clear how this stirring film that was well-made became such a success. Later on I'll look into the real life story to see how much “creative liberty” was taken here; as it this is a pretty good film with some good drama to go along with the action.