The Fortress (2017)

The Fortress (2017)
Korean Title: 남한산성
Translation: South Han Mountain Fortress

 

Starring: Lee Byung-hun, Kim Yoon-suk, Park Hae-il, Goh Soo, Song Young-chang, Park Hee-soon, Lee Da-wit
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Action Director: Heo Myeong-haeng, Ryoo Sung-chul

 

As a kung fu movie fan, I’ve seen numerous movies set during the Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1644 – 1911). Many of them involve Han Chinese patriots and folk heroes fighting against the Qing (or Manchu) “dogs” in a valiant (but ultimately unsuccessful) effort to restore the Ming Dynasty (or at least put the Hans back in power). A few of them deal with conflicts unique to that dynasty, like the infamous Taiping Rebellion. And others—like most films involving Wong Fei-Hung—have the Qing Dynasty as a backdrop, but don’t delve too much into the politics of the era (save the first few Once Upon a Time in China films). The Fortress is interesting because it tells a story from that period from a distinctly Korean point-of-view.

The film is set in A.D. 1636, eight years before the Manchurians will able to defeat the Ming Emperor and establish rule over China. The Ming Dynasty—a failing surveillance state thanks to a paranoid emperor and power-hungry eunuchs—is falling, while the Qings, composed of the Manchurian Jurchen tribe, are winning. Now, the region known as Manchuria borders on Korea (known then as the Joseon Kingdom) and both the Manchu and Korean languages are part of the same linguistic family. So, there’s a naturally feeling of brotherhood between them. The problem is that the Ming Dynasty had helped out Joseon against Japanese invaders (probably pirates) at some point and thus the royal family of Joseon pledged support to the Ming throne. Now that the Qings are trying to conquer China, they are offended that their “brothers” would support their enemies. So, a Qing army has come to the Joseon kingdom in order to force capitulation by the king.

When the movie starts, the Qings have already marched into the capital, forcing King Injo (Park Hae-il, of War of the Arrows and Hansan: Rising Dragon) and his ministers to flee to the south and take refuge in the fortress of Namhansanseong. A number of civilians from villages located around the mountain have also sought refuge, so there’s about 13,000 people holing up at the place. The problems are two-fold: first, the Qings have surrounded the mountain and cut off all possible escape (or entrance) routes from the place; second, it’s winter and this looks to be an especially harsh one.

The bulk of the film involves the interaction between King Injo and his ministers. Choi Myung-kil (Lee Byung-hun, of G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra and I Saw the Devil) is the Minister of the Interior, who is initially sent to try to negotiate peace terms with General Yonggoldae (Heo Sung-tae of Dragon Ball: Son Goku Fights, Son Goku Wins). The initial terms are for the king to renounce his support of the Ming Dynasty and to deliver up the crown prince (whom we never see) as a hostage to the Qing Emperor. Not only are the other ministers against this very idea, but they accuse Minister Choi of being in cahoots with the Manchus. This is a running theme throughout the film, that most of the king’s ministers exist to do nothing but tell the king to kill the messenger. In any case, Choi is in favor of peace at any costs, even it means becoming a vassal state to the Qing Emperor.

Opposing him directly is the Prime Minister (Song Young-chang, of Thirst and The Man from Nowhere) and Kim Sang-hun (The Yellow Sea’s Kim Yoon-seok), the Minister of Rites. To them, it is a question of national morality to not go back on their support for the Ming throne, as it is a question of dignity for the country to defend itself and be in bondage to nobody. While these two factions are going back and forth, the elements and limited supplies are weighing down on the soldiers’ morale. Enter a resourceful blacksmith named Nal-so (Goh Soo, Haunters and The Front Line), who manages to “befriend” Minister Kim and give him advice on how to take of the soldiers and maintain their weapons. Kim comes to trust Nal-so—especially after his advice helps them repel several ambushes from the Manchu soldiers. So as the winter drags on and things become dire, Kim entrusts Nal-so with a special mission: sneak out of the fortress with a letter to give to the reinforcement army camped out not too far away from the mountain…

Much of the film is less about the actual skirmishes between the Joseon and Manchurian armies and more about the political maneuverings between the two “factions” among the king’s ministers. The inability of the king’s ministry to really unify themselves amidst a situation that is quickly going from bad to worse quickly reflects on the soldiers’ morale, which then leads to discipline issues between the soldiers and the highest brass of the military (i.e. the Prime Minister). The malfeasance of the higher-ups is best exemplified by a series of scenes in which the Prime Minister resorts to draconian measures to solve one problem, only to completely render the sacrifice void in order to solve another. Case in point: the lack of access to the grounds outside the fort leads the horses to go hungry, which start collapsing en masse. Scared of losing their cavalry, the Prime Minister orders that the straw roofs of the peasants’ houses and the soldiers’ sleeping bags (made of straw) be confiscated to feed the horses. But within a few day, the army runs out of food and start butchering the horses for meat. Thus, had the Minister not acted so rashly, the soldiers and peasants wouldn’t be suffering from so much cold, given that the horses would’ve been slaughtered (onscreen and in graphic detail) anyway.

The film is directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, who these days is best known for creating the international hit series Squid Game. For the most part, he handles all of the drama as well as he can—not too stoic, not too over-the-top during certain emotional moments. He also never lets the story get too convoluted, given the epic scope of the story and the possibility of introducing too many characters into the mix. The film looks great, from the costumes to the photography. It is a bit grittier and more realistic than many of the Chinese movies about the same subject, with a visual palate that recalls The Warlords more than any Shaw film about the subject. Moreover, I applaud his decision to the film the scenes with the Manchu characters in the actual Manchu language, something we never saw in Chinese films, too.

My main problem with the movie is that at 140 minutes—a common run time for too many Korean movies—the film feels that length. I think we could have tightened up several of the scenes of the ministers debating the morality of their options, or droning on about the authorship and character of a capitulation letter to the Qing Emperor, or stuff like that. You could made a few cuts to bring the run time down to smidgen past two hours and it would have improved the final product immensely.

There are a few battle sequences—more like minor skirmishes—in The Fortress, staged by Heo Myeong-haeng (The Restless and The Good, the Bad and the Weird) and Ryoo Sung-chul (Alienoid and The Battle: Roar to Victory). Thankfully, these scenes, while short, are visibly shot and edited nicely, so you can see what’s going on. We see Qing soldiers fighting with swords, spears and kwan do (or assault blades—wielded by cavalry officers), plus the occasional use of cannons. The Joseon soldiers fight mainly with swords and rifles. There isn’t any room for length exchanges of sword swings and blocks, but the battles are exciting. I just wish there were more of them: the action probably accounts for less than 15 minutes in a 140-minute historical drama.

The Fortress was a huge success at home and was a critical darling, too, winning all sorts of awards in different ceremonies. Kim Jee-yong won “Best Cinematography” in three different awards ceremonies; legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto won “Best Music” in two; Hwang Dong-hyuk won “Best Director” in two; and the movie won “Best Film” in three.  It’s certainly a good movie, possibly a very good one. I just think it needed to be tighter on the editing to reach great status.