What’s left is simple heroism and rote sentimentality

Actor Lee Jung-jae stars as Navy Lt. Jang Hak-soo in “Operation Chromite.” (CJ E&M Film Division)

The upcoming Korean War film “Operation Chromite” takes on the loaded subject matter with a studded cast of Korean A-listers and Hollywood actor Liam Neeson, best known to Korean audiences for his 2008 thriller “Taken.” It clearly aims to be a commercial blockbuster, armed with glitzy visuals, loud battle scenes, budding wartime romance and easily imaginable characters.

It is, however, all style and very little substance. And like most recent Korean films that draw on conflict with the North -- including last year‘s “Northern Limit Line” -- it is much too focused on simple heroism.

The film’s intention, as professed by director Lee Jae-han after a press screening in Seoul on Wednesday, was to celebrate the unsung heroes of the Incheon landing of September 1950, considered one of the most decisive military operations in modern warfare. In Korea, the operation and its commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur of the U.S. Army who led the United Nations allied forces into the port city, are lauded in history books as having contributed largely to the 1953 armistice.

Irish actor Liam Neeson stars as Gen. Douglas MacArthur of the U.S. Army in “Operation Chromite.” (CJ E&M Film Division)

The way the “Operation Chromite” plot develops is akin to a textbook account on the event. Most of the risky military strategy -- which involved navigating through the torrential waters near Incheon giving the mission an estimated chance of success of 1 in 5,000 -- is explained via dialogue. Suspenseful music persists in the background from beginning to end, exhausting the actual suspense.

According to director Lee, the film tries to focus on the psychological tension between the North Korean Commander Lim Gye-jin, played by Lee Beom-soo, and South Korean Navy Lt. Jang Hak-soo, played by Lee Jung-jae, who is dispatched by MacArthur to infiltrate enemy forces.

Because the audience knows that the Incheon operation was a success, this dynamic could have offered unexpected suspense before the known ending. But the tension dies out while the two blandly characterized soldiers -- the infinitely villainous North Korean versus the devoted South Korean who joined the military to protect his mother -- are occupied exchanging lengthy glares amid cigarette smoke.

Irish actor Liam Neeson stars as Gen. Douglas MacArthur of the U.S. Army in “Operation Chromite.” (CJ E&M Film Division)

All the while, MacArthur, played by the usually formidable Neeson, is isolated from the rest of the cast -- for the sake of filming schedules and financial reasons, one can only assume -- and rendered lifeless. The celebrated Irish actor, despite his much-hyped casting, appears on screen for less than 20 minutes and only interacts with Lee Jung-jae in one brief scene. MacArthur’s mannerisms may have been replicated, but the character is given no emotional depth. Neeson struggles -- through no fault of his own -- to bring some sense of dimension to a character with which there is very little to work with.

Faced with an impossible military dilemma, political ambitions and intense opposition, MacArthur could have been a rich character to explore. But in director Lee’s rendition, the general only growls a few lines of generic and truly awful dialogue, including phrases like “Old age may have wrinkled my skin, but when you lose your ideals, it wrinkles your soul.”

Amid the film’s polished visuals, fancy camerawork and obvious computer graphics, the complexities of war and human nature are stripped down to rote sentimentality and a glamorous cast -- which includes Jung Joon-ho and Kim Sun-ah. At the end, the audience is left wondering what exactly “Operation Chromite” was about.

The film will open in local theaters on July 27.

By Rumy Doo (doo@heraldcorp.com)