Live action versions of Anime movies or series haven't been too successful. Illang: The Wolf Brigade is based on Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. I haven't seen Jin-Roh so I can't compare this to it. That is the reason if I don't give proper hate to this live action version. Jin-Roh went to my watch list after seeing live action version. So it can't be all bad.
My biggest problem is the premise and about first half hour. I had to take a break after it and come back later.Premise it South Korea and North Korea are planning uniting into one Korea. Much like Germany did. Movie happens in South Korea where some people doesn't want unite with North Korea. They shout it will break families. I am not expert in Korean situation but I thought division of Korea broke the families and united Korea would look much more like South Korea than North Korea. I am not getting deeper into that. It was there to explain why there was special force with inhuman look.
After first half hour we can forget the premise and concentrate on the story. There were moments when I thought giving up but because this wasn't Hollywood movie and I wasn't sure where the story was going I continued. It was worth it. Problem at the beginning is I wasn't sure what is going on. Movie follows some characters and then moves to other characters without giving reason why it does it. It gives reason but stating it is spoiler. Move from one characters to others was bit confusing at first but made more sense when story went on and we got to real main characters.
Movie doesn't stop jumping from one character's point of view to another character's point of view after introducing main characters. It is even used as storytelling device later. Idea was clever but execution wasn't on bar with the idea. Characters are the problem. Characters are either blank slates or introduced as evil. Story tells there are no really good people. People are forced into roles by society and can't be really good because of the world they live in. Or they embrace their role by being evil.
Change of point of view doesn't have impact it should when you jump to evil guys point of view. If he wasn't painted as evil the change would have made it interesting when you didn't know which side you should root for. That was what they wanted but they showed the other guy and his side was evil earlier.
Story needed characters with internal struggles. There is one character with internal struggle but her role is to be the character who shows people can't make real choices in this world. Other characters needed internal struggles to make them more interesting. One other start to have internal struggle at the end but that struggle should have been there from the beginning. Story is build on that internal struggle which doesn't start until the end. They wanted to show the character as emotionless killing machine rather than character with internal struggle.
Illang: The Wolf Brigade is slow movie which doesn't explain too much. You have to figure out what is going on. First half hour is confusing if you don't know anything about the movie before watching it. Story is really good but there was potential to be better. I can understand if Jin-Roh fans doesn't like this movie. Jin-Roh is probably the better version of the story. This version isn't bad. It just lacks character development to be really good and it made mistake of making one side looking evil when it should have shown both sides operating in gray area.
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