War of the Arrows is a movie about family, honor, and war. The opening scenes depict two young siblings in fear as their village is being violently raided. Their father tells them to run and to seek out a family friend while he stays behind to fight. Nam-Yi (Hae-il Park) and Ja-In (Moon Chae-Won) would never see their father again and would instead grow up in this new village. It was not an easy or peaceful youth, as everyone knew their father was targeted as a traitor. They both manage to move forward, Ja-In becoming a sought after wife, while Nam-Yi struggles to find an inner peace and purpose. He finds this purpose suddenly on his sister’s wedding day however, as she is kidnapped and his master is killed during a sudden invasion by the Manchurians. Nam-Yi survives and is hell-bent on revenge and rescuing his sister.
This gives Nam-Yi ample opportunity to utilize his outdoors skills in stalking and hunting with the bow. He basically becomes a sniper; sneaking up on small patrols of Manchurians, dispatching them one by one with his dead-eye accuracy and arrows that penetrate light armor, popping chests, necks, and skulls. He carries with him the bow that his father gave him just before he was killed and an uncompromising will to see himself through.
With the help of his sister’s husband and two other friends, Nam-Yi is able to aggravate the Manchurians to no end. One of the co-stars of this movie is the tough and iron-willed Manchurian leader of a small squad of raiders. One by one, he witnesses his soldiers die from the arrows of Nam-Yi, as he is always just a step behind. Similar to movies like Hero and Ip Man, the protagonist is up against impossible odds and you just wonder if he will survive. I thought Han-min Kim did a great job of preserving that tension right up until the ending credits.
Choreography and pacing in War of the Arrows is good, although allow the opening twenty to thirty minutes to go by before you make any kind of firm judgment. I thought these were the weakest part of the film, and that just maybe, a little bit too much time was spent on Nam-Yi and Ja-In’s youth. That could make repeated viewings a little harder, but the “trouble” of watching these scenes again is worth it in exchange for the rest of the movie. There is however one very odd scene with a CG tiger that I could have done without. This particular scene felt well out of place and very unrealistic.
Presentation quality is excellent, featuring both Korean and English 5.1 audio with subtitle support. Images are sharp and there is a nice blend of outdoor and indoor scenes. Most of the movie is outdoors, and there are a few spectacular countryside shots. I thought they also did a nice job with some forest scenes and a particular waterfall scene was great. The CG tiger was out of place, but otherwise the art direction and technical quality was all impressive.
Extra features are pretty thin, but worth a look nonetheless. Here’s what you get:
-Original Trailer (SD, 1m9s)
-Alternate Trailer (HD, 1m38s)
-Behind the Scenes (SD, 4m14s) – Plenty of brief cast and crew interviews.
-Highlights (SD, 3m19s) – Basically just a collection of some action scenes.
To the summary…
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