The Great Battle

Certainly plenty of action, in a movie that is seldom seen in this form. The third film of the LOTR comes to mind, but even with that, smaller armies. In the opening battle, of the 150,000 Korean soldiers, only 10,000 survived. Almost continuous battles, in a Chinese period piece. And horses in armor. In a way, I almost prefer battle scenes like in Ran, where, after the battle, the empty chairs above the battle spoke volumes about the fate of the defeated warlord. This movie filled in the battle scenes in a very graphic way. The Emperor is waging war, and standing in his way is the Ansi Fortress. It is 4000 against 200,000 of Chinese Emperor Tang. But the Korean Commander, Poong, is a brilliant tactician, and well cast in his role. There is a betrayal, perhaps shocking, but added interest. And yes, a running gag of two keeping five paces between them. The movie is almost non-stop action. Are we dealing with an accurate historical depiction of a chapter in history? One historical website outlines the battles, and it unfolds basically as depicted. It certainly is an entertaining movie on a scale that is more and more rare.

I brought this movie and didn't watch it for a month because I thought it was going to be trash.... I watched it and I was so wrong.... This was a good movie it's in English. Definitely worth buying

Easily a 4-star if not 5-star movie.It's great seeing some historical context of China and Korea (from 1500 years ago) with a ton of embellishment, obviously. Action is great -- not on Jet Li-Jackie-Chan level -- but still entertaining.. Attractive people throughout. Acting solid.So if you don't know what to watch, this is an excellent action flick with plot and very mild suspense.

It is a Korean historical movie, which means based on true story.Major story is true but the details are very suspicious even for a Korean, myself. However, it happened 1400 years ago so who cares. Watch it for fun not to get historical details.

I own and have watched a fair share of Asian cinema over the last 20 years since I started collecting DVDs and Blu-ray. And most of them deal with historical conflicts between kingdoms, dynasties, and so forth. And so with "The Great Battle" we have a film about the 88 day seige of the Fortress Ansi that was in northern Korea at the time, which is now in China. It pits Korean soldiers against Tang Dynasty Chinese soldiers. And the majority of the film which is a hefty 2+ hours is nothing but castle seige action. It has everything. Trebuchets, Seige Towers, Battering Rams, and wall scaling Ladders. It's like The Battle of Helms Deep without the fantasy races.I hardly ever rate anything a perfect 5 stars, but this film deserves it for the action alone. Most of it is in real time, but there's several slow motion shots that really emphasis certain fighting moves. It's even got some humor in it. There's some chuckle inducing banter between some of the Ansi troops. The PQ is awesome as well. Well Go USA is putting out some great releases lately. They upscale to 4K very nicely with a good upscaling player.

I like this movie 'The Great Battle' very much. I always learn some valuable lessons from historical movies. No problem watching the subtitles with white print. Decent level of English.I want to correct Tak's critical review entitled "A total fabrication of history" written on August 27, 2019. I found the following facts in Wikipedia and articles citing historical records:China (then called Tang) attacked Korea (then Goguryeo)'s Ansi Fortress in 645. Goguryeo resisted Tang for 88 days. The Tang emperor Li Daozong and his well trained and equipped troops couldn't invade the Ansi Fortress even after a siege of 88 days. When a severe winter arrived and food ran out, Tang had to retreat. From this defeat Li Daozong got sick and died. Several Korean documents from 500 to 1000 years ago recorded that, after the Battle of Ansi, Tang emperor Li Daozong said in his will "never to invade Goguryeo again." This invasion cost him too much in soldiers, military supplies, food and time.At the time of the battle of Ansi, the territory of Goguryeo included part of today's China. Specifically Ansi Fortress was on the Liaodong Peninsula in China and it was Goguryeo's territory back then.Goguryeo was finally defeated by Silla (one of the three Kingdoms of ancient Korea) with Tang aid in 668. Throughout 5,000 years of Korean ancient and modern history, China invaded Korea many times up to and including 1950, the Korean War.Dear reviewers, we all have freedom of expression. If you want to criticize the facts of historical movies, please provide factual proof. When making historical movies, generally the staff checks and verifies historical facts with professionals and historians before filming. They don't just make fantasy movies. Please recognize all the hard work and resources that go into these movies.Joy A

I absolutely loved this movie. I read some reviews saying it was bad / predictable and went in with that in mind. Those reviews could not have been more wrong. I loved this movie and think it was truly a great story. Highly suggest you watch it.

Great cinematography of the battle scenes. Great actors who portrayed the devotion and tenacity to save their country. I watched this moving on my 27'' display, but it would be amazing to watch on a larger screen or in the movie theatre.

We had a great evening watching this epic war flic. If you bought the movie to watch massive epic battle scenes like I did, you won't be disappointed. The quality of the AI components of the movie was very professional and blended in with the actors and scenes very realistically making the battle scenes very entertaining. Some of the battle actions sequences were even shot "300" style in just the right amount which enhanced the entertainment factor up a another notch. The story lines were laid out well enough to understand the backdrop against when and where and why this "great Battle" took place, so you'll also take away a useful but of history by the end of the movie. The Blu-ray also has an English Audio track so there's no need to read subtitles. All totalled I'd give this movie a solid 7.5 out of ten.

日本語じゃない、買って損した

I’ll tell you one thing, they sure didn’t name this movie “The Great Battle” for nothing.that is a given, the movie is relentless in it’s pursuit of Action that’s for dam sure.don’t care about the subtitles of English cause the English dub is good. but the latter didn’t botherme one bit..never have I been more entertained in my life watching a movie. period!!The Siege of Ansi, an the Goyuryeo Forces Who Stop Them.Runtime 136 Min.Widescreen 2.35:1Korean 5.1 DTS-HD Master.

Nice Korean movie with epic battle scenes. We enjoyed watching it.

Entertaining movie to watch, whole family loved it.