In one sense, the plot of this film is extremely simple: once it gets warmed up, it’s just an extended series of battle scenes. Not only that, Goguryeo’s main forces based in Pyongyang view the fighters in Ansi City with deep suspicion, so there’s not much help available from them, either. Despite having a much bigger army, the fortress defenses proved to be much more than the Emperor bargained for.Įssentially, The Great Battle is a classic underdog story, with the leader of the forces in Ansi Fortress, played by Zo In-sung, using clever planning, quick thinking and ingenuity to fight against a much stronger enemy. After a series of victories, the Tang army attempted to seize the fortress in Ansi City (which is actually part of modern-day China, but was controlled by Goguryeo then). In the year 645, the legendary Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty personally led an attack on the Goguryeo kingdom (37 BCE-668), which was centered in the northern regions of the Korean peninsula. In the case of The Great Battle, it was a mere three lines of text in the historical annals that formed the basis for this US$20 million film. Like the Hollywood studios with comic book characters, the Korean film industry has combed through every available historical source for people and events that might be turned into the next blockbuster hit. Overall, a war movie worth watching if you know what to expect and if you sometimes just want to see spectacular fight scenes with a nice and easy to follow story in Asia.By this point, Korean filmmakers (and the scriptwriters for TV dramas) have left very few stones unturned in their search through modern and classical Korean history for movie ideas.
Do not expect big history accuracy - but honestly I think this was also never attempted or wanted - and you should also not look for a historic depiction in such a movie. A charismatic cast of characters with somewhat unique personalities ( look out for the Gimli-Legolas friendship), a small defence army fighting a nearly hopeless fight against an overwhelming number of attackers, a plot which serves the needs of such a movie, an atmospheric score and - of course - great and diverse battle scenes with many bad dass moments. Perhaps you also get a small feeling of being in Jerusalem during Kingdom's Heaven.
While watching, you definitely will be reminded of great battles scenes from Middle Earth (but obviously without mythical creatures) like Helm's Deep or Minas Tirith. The title exactly describes this movie: A great battle.
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