Illang: The Wolf Brigade

So this is a live-action film based on the animated film Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. Papafred mentioned that movie back when we were roomies too, but I never got around to watching it either.

There's a whole power struggle going on between two different branches of security agencies in a future where the Koreas are trying to reunify to better defend themselves against China, Japan, Russia, and the U.S. There's an anti-reunification terrorist cell, but something about the way it's presented from the beginning suggests it's a front one of the sides is using as a boogeyman to keep their power. Or else I'm just extremely cynical and suspicious of everything.

That whole thing is mostly moving in the background of a relationship between one member of the Wolf Brigade and the sister of a member of the terrorist cell who blew herself up in front of that soldier/cop guy. There's a lot of deceit, questions about which one of them is really playing the other, how much either of them is even aware of what's going on around them.

There's a big fight in the sewers near the end, and I thought the end of that was going to be the end of the movie. As it turns out, the film goes for another 10-15 minutes, and that turns around how you view things, at least as far as one character is concerned. It's effective, because it doesn't instantly make that character entirely sympathetic, but it does make him a little more sympathetic. If the movie ended after the sewer battle, I would have been fairly impressed that the film had spent most of its time suggesting this character felt horrible about the lives that he felt had been needlessly lost, and then had flipped it around at the last minute, having played with our expectations. Because he looked quiet, and everyone else seemed to think he was shook up, we think he is, too. But that doesn't make it so, and a wolf doesn't feel bad for its prey.

But then the actual ending flips that around again, because it's the first time the character actually gives us any sense of how they feel where we don't have to suspect that it's all an act for one person or another. With all the deception up to that point, the audience can't really take any of his actions at face value, and maybe I'm making a mistake not applying that same skepticism to the end of the film, but I don't think so. Keeping a lot of the focus on that character without us being inside his head, and not being able to trust his words or actions was a smart approach.