3 stars
Movies based on historical events can be a mixed bag; the best can inspire people to act, while the worst are so determined to ram their message down the viewers’ throats that they forget to give them anything else but a lecture. At the very least, a historical film should inspire the audience to learn more about what they’ve seen. If the filmmakers are talented enough to make their message entertaining, too, then it’s a complete experience.
I knew little about the historical events depicted in Harbin, co-written and directed by Min-ho Woo. What I do know, I’ve learned from watching similar movies. Harbin is the story of a small band of Korean independence activists who devise a plan to kill the Japanese Prime Minister in the hopes that their act will inspire their nation to rise and fight to gain their country’s independence. And it all starts with an epic battle sequence.
Epic fight scenes, showing armies of thousands racing against each other across the open plains or through dense forests, are a staple of Asian war films, particularly historical ones. In Harbin, the director scales this scene’s energy and visual spectacle to bring audiences into a violent street fight. It’s less epic but more intense, muddy, and bloody. He ends the murder and mayhem on a grace note when the leader of the victorious activists, against the wishes of his surviving troops, denies his defeated enemy counterpart his request to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). It’s an act of forgiveness that haunts the rest of the story.
While he has a talent for action sequences, Min-ho ensures that the epic never overshadows the individual. He takes time to give each of the activists and a few of their opponents time to establish their part in the story. Hyun Bin is effective as the leader of the activist Ahn Jung-guen, whose kindness nearly ends the assassination plot. Park Hoon is stunning as Tatsuo Mori, the Japanese leader whose sense of lost honor drives him more than any other ideological passion.
Because the significant characters are so fully developed, they serve as the perfect gateway to bringing the uninformed audience into the drama of the situation and make Harbin an edge-of-your-seat thriller. Will the activists overcome the enormous odds against them? Will the dogged Tatsuo, more relentless than a Terminator, stop them in time? And when the dust finally settles, what happens next?
The answer to that final question is devastating, no matter how well-informed you are as an audience member because the final words that flash across the screen put into perspective just how long a journey these and future activists have to go.
