Cast:
Choi Soo Jong as Lee Hyun Joong
Lee Tae Ran as Lee Soo Kyung
Lee Duk Hwa as Park Woong
Kim Roe Ha as Park Il Kwon
Hong Kyung In as Yang Sang Gil
Im Won Hee (임원희) as Kim Joon Bum
Nam Sung Jin as Yeom Ha Jin
Ryu Sang Wook as Park Joo Yong
Lee Seung Hyo as Jung Taek Soo
Park Sang Wook as Baek Seung Jin
Ahn Yong Joon as Kim Bum Woo
Jung Tae Woo as Chun Sung Il
Lee Joo Suk as Kim Joong San
Kim Myung Soo as Chun Yong Taek
Lee In Hye as Jung Hwa
Genre:
War, Drama
Plot:
Lee Hyun Joong is a army squad leader during the Korean War. The South Korean Army had just pushed the Communist forces back across the 38th and are moving on the offensive, however, spearheading through enemy lines too quickly causes the forces from the South to become too unprepared.
Comrades is a war story of a band of brothers, formed from the remnants of a retreating southern army. They struggle to survive the war through different situations. Each character has his strengths and weaknesses and his own personal past to deal with. Lee Hyun Joong is an experienced leader and a source of silent reassurance. He puts the lives of his own men before him and does not hesitate to accomplish the most dangerous missions for the sole reason of ending the war faster.
How does each man fight his fear of dying? What kind of bonds do they form? Who will come out alive?
Review:
This drama was by far one of the greatest war dramas I have ever seen. The action sequences and war scenes were all carefully done and legitimately so. The action is not the major point of the drama but rather the growth of character between the members of Lee Hyun Joon’s squad. The drama tells us more about the conditions of the war and the human factor rather than reliving the actual battles. This is not to say the action scenes were fake or boring. They were very nicely done and I really enjoyed watching them.
The actors and actresses really played a superb performance. They all portrayed their characters nicely and I felt that some things didn’t need to be said and the themes could be conveyed through their acting. I think the drama was fairly neutral. They don’t take a stance with the North or the South, but rather portray both sides as victims of the war. The Northern forces are very idealistic and strong minded while the southern forces seem to be fighting just to return home. Both sides have their struggles and both sides have their more humanistic soldiers and more cruel characters.
The only thing that bothered me throughout the drama was that Lee Hyun Joon suddenly got eyeshadow somewhere through the drama and it was really weird to watch him haha.
If you have some free time on your hands and are a fan of war dramas I would really recommend this drama to you. The slight romantic elements between Hyun Joon and Soo Kyung were not that refreshing or believable, however the theme between that is carefully entwined to show that even people with close ties ended up on different sides of the battle and were forced to kill each other.
The drama really touched my heart. Every episode had its share of angst but I felt that it did a good job building up the tone, which helped a lot with the closing of the drama and showed us the feeling of those soldiers who are left alive who still remember their comrades.
Rating:
4.9/5.0
Leave a comment