The Korean movie that has been silent for a long time finally ushered in an explosion-the action movie “Escape from Mogadishu”.
Since the release of “Escape from Mogadishu” on July 28, more than two months, its cumulative movie viewership has exceeded 7.06 million.
“Escape from Mogadishu” became the best Korean movie at the box office this year.
The film tells the true story of Mogadishu, the largest city in Somalia in 1990.
At that time, Somali rebels invaded Mogadishu and occupied the capital. Some netizens referred to it as the “Black Hawk Down” prequel.
Somali general Mohamed Siad Barre has pursued dictatorship since he took over as president in 1969.
Until January 1991, when the rebels invaded the capital Mogadishu, Barre had to leave Lagos, Nigeria.
During the time when Mogadishu was in chaos, the embassies of various countries in Mogadishu bore the brunt and became the target of the attack.
Staff from various countries had to evacuate urgently.
In order to safely withdraw from Mogadishu, the embassy personnel of North Korea and South Korea decided to cooperate and jointly escape from Mogadishu.
“Escape from Mogadishu” tells exactly such a piece of history, and today I will have a good chat with you about this movie.
1.In 1987, South Korea sent diplomatic officials to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, and set up an embassy there.
And North Korea was unwilling to show weakness and sent its own diplomats.
The two groups have been fighting openly and secretly in Mogadishu to win the trust of President Barre.
South Korea’s ambassador Han Sin-seong (Yoon-suk Kim), in order to please President Barre, asked his subordinate Kang Dae-jin Counselor (In-seong Jo) to bring a box of gifts from South Korea.
When the North Korean ambassador Rim Yong-su (Jun-ho Heo) learned of the situation, he asked his subordinate Tae Joon-ki Counselor (Gu Kyohwan) to seek help from the rebels and robbed the box of gifts halfway.
Operations like this are the daily routine of their diplomatic struggle.
All this stopped abruptly until the day the rebels threatened Mogadishu.
President Barre ran away, Mogadishu fell into a state of disorder, the city was cut off from water and electricity, burning and looting everywhere.
In order to protect themselves, the embassy staff of various countries in Mogadishu have tried every means to take a special plane to leave Mogadishu.
The South Korean embassy was protected by the Mogadishu police through bribery, while the unprotected North Korean embassy was looted by rebels.
Rim Yong-su had to take the staff and family members to venture out of the embassy.
After some negotiations, the staff of the North Korean Embassy was approved by Han Sin-seong, the South Korean ambassador.
But it is not easy for the two groups of people who used to be tit-for-tat to sit together now.
Kang Dae-jin Counselor and Tae Joon-ki Counselor each had a ghost. One wanted to forge a “confession letter” to make the North Korean ambassador rebel; the other planned to control the South Korean embassy.
The two clashed constantly in the embassy and eventually fought. Fortunately, the two ambassadors arrived in time to resolve the conflict.
Han Sin-seong and Rim Yong-su decided to leave Mogadishu together. They drove two chariots and split into two lanes.
Han Sin-seong went to the Italian Embassy that established diplomatic relations with South Korea for rescue; Rim Yong-su went to the Egyptian Embassy for help.
After that, Han Sin-seong arrived at the Italian Embassy and found an airplane provided by the International Red Cross.
But they need to board the plane before 4pm.
Although Rim Yong-su could not find the rescue plane at the Egyptian Embassy, he also contacted the North Korean Consulate in Cairo and reported the situation.
After returning to the South Korean Embassy, everyone prepared 4 vehicles and was going to the Italian Embassy at 3:31 in the afternoon.
Along the way, they were hit by a double attack by the rebels and the Somali army, and stumbled to the Italian Embassy.
Tae Joon-ki Counselor was shot and killed in order to be able to deliver Rim Yong-su safely.
Finally, everyone boarded a Red Cross flight, which landed at Mombasa Moi Airport in Kenya after a long journey.
Because both countries sent commissioners to pick up the plane, the two sides hurriedly bid farewell on the plane.
After getting off the plane, they pretended not to know each other, but left the airport with mixed feelings.
2.The film is adapted from a real event. The story of North Korea and South Korea’s diplomats jointly escaping from Mogadishu has really happened in history.
However, due to the special period, most of the documents of the embassies of the two sides were destroyed during the fleeing, and no records were left of the escape process.
The story of the movie is created based on the oral narration of relevant personnel.
South Korean ambassador Han Sin-seong and North Korean ambassador Rim Yong-su are also unique. It is the former South Korean ambassador Kang Sin-seong and the former North Korean ambassador Kim Yong-su who boarded the plane together.
At that time, Kang Sin-seong and 6 staff members tried to leave Mogadishu by special plane. They met Kim Yong-su with 13 staff members and family members at the airport.
But since no planes left that day, everyone was trapped at the airport.
Because the North Korean embassy had been destroyed, Kang Sin-seong proposed to Kim Yong-su to go to the South Korean embassy for the night.
They spent an awkward but slightly warm night in the embassy.
Later Kang Sin-seong recalled: “It felt like a family. We all tried to overcome ideological differences.”
The story of the movie has done a lot of artistic processing on the basis of respecting history.
As a senior director, Ryoo Seung-wan is also very mature in the presentation of details and the grasp of the shots.
He also added many children’s roles in the movie, also in order to show the cruelty of war and the commonality of conflict between North Korea and South Korea from the perspective of children.
As school-age children, the respected North Korean children in the embassy are in stark contrast with the Somali children carrying AK-47s on the street.
Under the same sky, two children of the same age have completely different fates.
At least North Korean children do not need to experience the suffering of war, while Somali children are tough on the surface, but their lives are not guaranteed.
The adults were excited when they said goodbye on the plane, but when they got off the plane they had to pretend not to know each other. This made the children see it in their eyes, and they couldn’t understand it at all.
To show the absurdity of the adult world through children’s vision is precisely the brilliance of the expression level of the film.
3.Next year, the hitting Oscar film selected by South Korean films is this “Escape from Mogadishu”.
This shows that not only South Koreans respect it, but also people in the industry have high hopes for it.
Director Ryoo Seung-wan has created many popular films, but “Escape from Mogadishu” is currently his highest rated film.
Yoon-suk Kim, the winner of the Baeksang Art Awards and the Blue Dragon Award in Korea, joined forces with the movie star In-seong Jo, who has returned to the film circle for the first time in 4 years, and the film has attracted much attention just after the project was established.
And this year’s highest production cost of 20 billion won guarantees the scene and quality of the movie.
Where is the 20 billion won?
In addition to paying for the actors, the film focuses on efforts to restore the streetscape of Mogadishu and show the tragic aspects of the war.
Chaotic streets, corpses everywhere, burning cars, smashed shops, crazy looting troops and civilians.
All these have truly restored the horror of the war 31 years ago.
The fight between the embassy staff of South Korea and North Korea is the highlight of the movie.
The director cleverly portrayed both Han Sin-seong and Rim Yong-su as cool-headed, wise and enlightened people, while their subordinates Kang Dae-jin Counselor and Tae Joon-ki Counselor were portrayed as radical, confident and brave generals.
The game of these four players, like handsome chess and chess chess on the chessboard, appears quite structured.
In order to escape Mogadishu, the two sides finally put aside their grievances and decided to go hand in hand.
At this time, everyone found that in the face of their own safety, the previous conflicts seemed insignificant.
This is the anti-war theme that the film aims to express.
4.”Escape from Mogadishu” has made great efforts in the creation of large scenes, historical restoration and characterization, and the degree of completion of the presentation is also very high.
As the Chong Ao movie next year, this movie has been placed high expectations by Koreans.
But in my opinion, compared with “Gisaengchung”, “Escape from Mogadishu” still has a big gap with it.
However, even so, “Escape from Mogadishu” is definitely a good movie worth watching.
Related Post: “Escape from Mogadishu” First Exposure Trailer.
