Man I wish someone did a writing check on this bad boy film. So I can't really compare the two versions, I just remember that I liked the animated version and I can say the same thing for the live action version. The action scenes themselves are decent for what they are. The movie is certainly pretty to look at. Later, the Wolf Brigade meet in a junkyard and Fuse is ordered to kill Kei to ensure she is never recaptured by Public Security. Floor Coatings. That was satisfying! The windows in the car he hijacks are obviously easily smashed, but bulletproof when he reverses and gets shot at. Illang: the Wolf Brigade is an enjoyable, if ultimately flawed, film. Sigh.. The action scenes and practical effects are all quite enjoyable. There are also some other surface changes to the film that, really, dont affect as much as they probably should. "Werewolf"), also known as Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade in its American release, is a 1999 Japanese action political thriller[1] anime film directed by Hiroyuki Okiura (in his directorial debut) and written by Mamoru Oshii. Anti Slip Coating UAE Action Drama Sci-Fi Set in the distant future where both North and South Koreas agree to establish a joint government, which has been in preparation for a duration of 7 years, the plot focuses on political uprisings on opposing sides which grow fierce when a special police unit is formed to stop the. Yun-hee tells him she saw a puppet show of Little Red Riding Hood, but a version without a happy ending. Aside from the blackouts and the demonstrations at the beginning, I didn't fully get a sense of the effects of the reunification process. There, it may find a cult following, considering that the sharp-looking film boasts some of the most spectacular set pieces including a stunning climactic showdown in which a steel-clad killing machine blasts his way through sewer tunnels crawling with dirty cops that audiences are likely to find on the streaming service this fall. Significant tariffs are imposed upon both countries, creating an economic depression for both, and weakening public support for reunification. It is a live-action adaptation of the Japanese animated film Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, with the setting changed from a Japanese one to a Korean one. As the filmmaker wasn't able to produce two films in the same time but didn't want someone else to direct his final episode, Oshii decided that the third episode would be an anime instead. Good production value Pamphlet from DVD. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Fearing the possibility of war, North Korea and South Korea agree to re-unify for the sake of survival, with a five year interim put in place as preparation for the reunification. Yun-hee tells him how her sister joining "The Sect" destroyed her family. Whatever. The soldiers survive, but Lim shows shock. The film's musical score was composed by Hajime Mizoguchi. With the appearance of an armed anti-government terrorist group called The Sect which opposes reunification, the President creates a new police division called the Special Unit which amasses significant political power. "[27], As per Yonhap review, the film "spent so much time trying to recreate the world from the animated movie and remakes it into a big-scale action blockbuster that it never got the simple things right the film falls short of properly delivering the intense inner conflict felt by Joong-kyung. They then are not bulletproof when he shoots from the inside. Suffice it to say, there is an elaborate conspiracy afoot to disband the Special Unit which is strange, since they seem pretty effectively disbanded 15 minutes into the movie. However I really enjoyed this movie, yeah the romance part might a bit long but also has some purpose in building the final climax. Film Review: 'Illang: The Wolf Brigade' Reviewed at Busan Film Festival, Oct. 6, 2018. But at the end of the day, the shoot-outs are tight, and the action is adrenaline inducing. Together they go to the bookstore that Yun-hee owns. Due to civil unrest within South Korea (Japan in the original), an elite anti-terror unit is formed. He then committed Jin-Roh as a debut film to a trusted young collaborator, Hiroyuki Okiura, who had worked on animation movies such as Ghost in the Shell (character designer) and Patlabor 2: The Movie. In 2029, after the governments of North and South Korea announce a 5-year plan to reunify the country, strong sanctions by the world's powerful nations cripple the economy and lead to a hellish period of chaos. It's a futuristic fable in which a new Cold War leads to a reunification attempt between North and South Korea. The storyline was a little sketchy with some holes and jumps. If they had kept the original ending that preserved the nature of the main quote, I would have easily given it a 9/10. There is action in the movie, and the action scenes are (reasonably) well done, but there are large chunks of the movie where there's no action at all. After the event, significant opposition to the Special Unit forces the group to utilize their iconic gas masks, to hide their identity as well as provide use in case of bio-hazardous threats. I think I prefer the wolf ending over this, but was hoping for something more substantial to tie it all together. However, due to negative reviews from both critics and audience members, the film screened for only three weeks, and ended up attracting a total of 897,254 moviegoers, grossing US$6.2 million. I can't explain it, but it hit it's marks and hit them perfectly. He knows about Yun-hee's true identity and has expected that the state security would lead them to her. Didn't feel anything for the characters or their romance. Later, Kei reveals her role in the deception and suggests they leave together, but Fuse decides to stay. Anyone that has seen the original master piece before would find dissapointement in the last 15 min. Failing to follow an order to execute a frightened young girl only to see her commit suicide by detonating an improvised explosive device before his very eyes, Fuse is put on trial and sent back to the training camp for re-evaluation. EDIT 2: I have no idea why the numbers are screwy. With the exception of Kim Mu-yeol, the cast are about as stiff as boards, and I think it's because they have so little to work with their characters. The original was perfectly fine with letting you sit through a slow movie, though, and kept its overall length a bit short as a compensation. 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Rowling More Grace and Listen to Her, Britain's $4 Billion Boss: ITV Chief Carolyn McCall Bets It All on Talent, 2023 Music Festivals: How to Buy Tickets to Coachella, Governors Ball, Lollapalooza and More. But his greatest enemy proves to be his own pride. But I found it stylish satisfying and at times genuinely scary! words that have to do with clay P.O. Illang: The Wolf Brigade. (Source: KoBiz) Edit Translation, In 2029, after the governments of North and South Korea announce a 5-year plan to reunify the country, strong sanctions by the world's powerful nations cripple the economy and lead to a hellish period of chaos. After the Dragon King steals his staff, the Monkey King sets off on a mission to get it back. Amidst this bloody struggle between two ultra-powerful institutions, rumors emerge of a secret "Wolf Brigade" being formed within the Special Unit. From here on out, Illang: The Wolf Brigade devotes much of its remaining runtime to a pointless attempt at inflating the runtime and creating intrigue when you dont care about the mystery. A South Korean live-action remake titled Illang: The Wolf Brigade directed by Kim Jee-woon updates the setting from Japan to a dystopian South Korea, where the plot revolves around plans to unite the two Koreas. He ultimately still found the experience frustrating both through the tiping ("The moment you write, you want to direct") and after realizing the result would unavoidably be much different from what he pictured in his head. Yoon-hee claims a lot of things over the course of the movie, and sooner or later, one would do well to stop believing her, since shes the rebel/spy/love-interest/damsel-in-distress on whom the movies unnecessarily convoluted plot pivots at least three too many times. The unit is characterized by their futuristic military gear, and respirators containing glowing red lights. Being a huge Kerberos fan (went as far as spending two whole month salaries to buy a full size set of armor back in the day) my expectations were really high Kei embraces Fuse and sadly recites the dialogue of Little Red Riding Hood, describing the grotesque appearance of the wolf disguised as a loved one. As interesting as perfectly remaking an old anime into a live action movie might be, I was more intrigued by what changes would be implemented and how the lens of a Korean movie team would affect the narrative. It was originally planned to be the third and final live-action feature film of the Kerberos trilogy, but its production wasn't possible until 1994, while Oshii was already working on Ghost in the Shell. Korean director Kim Jee-woon's latest offering is another anime adaptation, this time in the form of ILLANG: THE WOLF BRIGADE. But thats not the end of the road for Illang, which will next head to Netflix in all other territories. The Wolf Brigade is a high powered, deadly force of men whose job it is to crush the sect opposing reunification. The film does include a few scenes that were faithful recreations of scenes from the original animation, and they were quite interesting to see and can really get a fan of the original excited. If you have, I'm sure this will be less of a discussion and more reminiscing about how dropped our jowls were by the end credits. As the credits were rolling, I realized what I had really wanted was to see a Korean take the Jin-Roh idea, the extrapolation from the same starting point but divergent from the original in a way that the new film would only make sense to set it in South Korea. I felt like the new happy ending didn't match up to the original ending in the anime movie. [12], A South Korean live-action remake titled Illang: The Wolf Brigade directed by Kim Jee-woon updates the setting from Japan to a dystopian South Korea, where the plot revolves around plans to unite the two Koreas. sorry to be that guy, but does anyone who has seen the movie know what is the origin of the art from the Red riding hood scene, I am fascinated by the artwork and am looking for prints of it and was wondering if they are original to the movie itself or from an outside source? Set in the distant future where both North and South Koreas agree to establish a joint government, which has been in preparation for a duration of 7 years, the plot focuses on political upri Read allSet in the distant future where both North and South Koreas agree to establish a joint government, which has been in preparation for a duration of 7 years, the plot focuses on political uprisings on opposing sides which grow fierce when a special police unit is formed to stop the Read allSet in the distant future where both North and South Koreas agree to establish a joint government, which has been in preparation for a duration of 7 years, the plot focuses on political uprisings on opposing sides which grow fierce when a special police unit is formed to stop the chaos. But the fight ends quickly after a young girl detonates herself, and after spending the entire opening introducing us to this badass group of scary soldiers and showing how formidably effective they are, the film pretty much sweeps them under the rug for the rest of its runtime. The state security wants to disband the special unit. The year is now 2029, and Special Unit forces now patrol wearing elaborate steel-plated armor. Fuse confronts his own humanity when he fails to shoot a young terrorist that his unit traps in the storm-water tunnels. That whole movie. Thank You! Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos. Variety and the Flying V logos are trademarks of Variety Media, LLC. Think of the T-60 Power Armor from the Fallout series, but make it 100 times scarier and more evil, and add terrifying round red eyes that glow with the intensity of nightmarish soldiers from hell, and you get the Special Unit soldiers. Based on Mamoru Oshiis Kerberos Panzer Cop manga whose 1999 anime adaptation, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, serves as a direct blueprint for this films stunning opening and climax Illang transposes the story from Japan to Korea, where political and economic pressure have forced the divided country to consider reunification. (Source: KoBiz). [20], Webtoon writer Yoon Tae-ho penned a prequel titled Illang: Prequel, which took place five years before the events of the film. In 2014, a plane with 239 people aboard vanishes from all radar. Meanwhile, Yun-hee lures Lim into a trap. Either one of these, dedicated to complete, I think would have made a fantastic film. Illang: The Wolf Brigade (sometimes known as Inrang: The Wolf Brigade, which has been used at least once) is a 2018 Korean science fiction dystopian movie directed by Kim Jee-woon.It stars Gang Dong-won, Han Hyo-joo, Jung Woo-sung and Kim Mu-yeol. It seems the movie didn't work well in Korea, and I remember watching the Jin roh anim as a kid and didn't like it that much. She says he didn't even shoot her and they were just opponents on different sides. In particular, the part where he jump-kicks the guy through the car window. The original Jin-Roh is a slow movie. As a Korean critic, I should have gave it a 10 but on a second thought [1][17] Filming began on August 16, 2017 in Studio Cube, a South Korean filming complex, and completed on March 23, 2018. Yun-hee is a former member of "The Sect" who is supposed to trap Lim for the State Security. He then surprises Yun-hee by informing her that Lim is not only a member of the special unit, but belongs to the notorious sub-organization Illang, the Wolf Brigade. Add to that the complete change of medium, and I was intrigued to see what the end result would be. The goal of /r/Movies is to provide an inclusive place for discussions and news about films with major releases. [6] Oshii, who characterized him as "allergic to computers", admitted that had he directed the film he would have relied in computer animation just as he did in Ghost in the Shell and no more than 30,000 cels would have been needed. The main problem with it is that two and a half hours it's much too overlong and could have done with some judicious cutting, but other than that this is a solid effort. Entertaining and quite intelligent combat and action sequences throughout the movie; however, remarkably dumb reasons provided by the plot to explain the purpose of this combat. The film attempts to convey a message about following orders blindly and becoming an emotionless beast--theres a recurring allegory to Little Red Riding Hood and the idea of a wolf in human clothing, with the films title of Illang being a combination of human and wolf in Korean--but it tries to juggle too many things while focusing on the most boring element, the romance between Lim and Lee. I thought all of the fighting and firefights of the movie were incredibly unique and interesting as far as movies go, the setting was also something that I enjoyed. The sequences are clean, and for the most part, dont fall prey to my biggest pet peeve of actions movies which are when theres a lot happening but I have no idea how to even begin to tell what is going on. In those finals moments, they manage to seemingly invalidate the rest of the film; it's quite literally the complete opposite of the anime. Entertaining and quite intelligent combat and action sequences throughout the movie; however, remarkably dumb reasons provided by the plot to explain the purpose of this combat. Like why can't you just flim everything the same as the originals? Rafael Motamayor The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. But the time we got to the bunker, the main character when from a vulnerable character we were rooting for into the predator. A trap is set by the local police forces and the Public Security Division intended to discredit the Special Unit with Kei as bait to catch Fuse, intending to show a terrorist passing a satchel bomb to a member of the Panzers. To revamp the family business, a young entrepreneur sets up a bold yet risky plan of importing soil from Morocco to bury his communitys deceased. Secondary characters like Cheol-jin and Mi-kyung get thrown into the story and exit without adding any substance. The biggest improvement in this regard is Han Hyo-joos character, Lee Yoon-heeIllang takes Jin-Rohs Kei Amemiya and does a better job of getting into the characters backstory. [5] Oshii considered him the most able candidate among the younger staff of the studio and both Production IG and Bandai Visual, knowing about his directing ambitions and his interest in creating a serious drama, wanted him to do his debut for them. The Korean police forces quickly become overwhelmed with the size and violence of protests in the regions, prompting the government to create a new, elite police force called the "Special Unit." A very confusing movie. Nice action scenes. The love story aspect of the movie just doesn't work, so it doesn't have an emotional crutch. The special unit is able to track the fleeing members to the sewers and hunt down some members there. There's certainly a lot going on plot-wise, and the movie doesn't juggle the material well. This is a film about political machinations and twists and turns in how people betray each other. It was developed by Kakao Pages and Daum Webtoon and was released on June 27, 2018, beginning a weekly run of chapters that led up to the film's release on July 25. [13][14][15][16][17][18], Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, "[Review] Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (Blu-ray)", "Warner Bros. and KIM Jee-woon Team Up Once More on JIN-ROH Remake", "KIM Jee-woon's Sci-fi Action INRANG Starts Shooting in August", "Jin-roh: "The Wolf Brigade" Set for Unexpected Korean Remake", "Korean Live-Action Jin-Roh Film Aims to Cast Actress Han Hyo-joo", "KIM Jee-woon's Sci-fi Action Drama INRANG Completes 8 Months of Filming", "YUBARI INTERNATIONAL FANTASTIC FILM FESTIVAL 2000", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jin-Roh:_The_Wolf_Brigade&oldid=1136119828, International Fantasy Film Special Jury Award, Ryuichi Horibe (Ron Halder in the English version) as. Then he meets Lee Yun-hee (Han Hyo-joo, also wooden), who claims to be the dead girls sister. An incident involving the death of innocent teens causes the Special Unit to become ruthless killing machines, hiding their faces--and the last traces of their humanity--behind elaborate steel-plated armor and helmets. And it's a shame because the initial idea was not bad. A lot of changes to the story made it worse. [31], The film was made on a US$17.0 million budget and targeted to attract around 6 million moviegoers. In the sewers they meet Jang Jin-tae. Rafael Motamayor (@RafaelMotamayor) is a recovering cinephile and freelance writer from Venezuela currently freezing his ass off in cold, grey, Norway. That concept alone makes for a fascinating science-fiction film, but unfortunately, its all setup that is immediately abandoned. Illang: The Wolf Brigade picks up five years into the unification plans. After that I didn't care who was fighting who. any information helps. The animation is good for its time, and while it flirts with interesting ideas, it moves at such a slow pace and features such a dull main character that I found myself frequently bored. [Edit: typo due to puppy paws hitting my keyboard]. 3. Fantastic and brilliant, with an intense and memorable ending. I've been waiting almost 20 years for this and thankfully it was not a whitewashed Hollywood disaster! Overall, though, if you have heartbreaking memories of the original, this one does not deliver the same emotional punch the original possessed. A man is convicted of a robbery he didnt commit and spends six years in jail. The unrest generated by the political tension in Asia, economic depression, and opposition to reunification results in a domestic terror group known as "The Sect" to form.