Last film in the Admiral Yi Sun-shin trilogy covers the events leading up to and during the Battle of Noryang Strait.
Following THE ADMIRAL:ROARING CURRENTS where Choi Min Sik played Yi and HASAN: RISING DRAGON where Park Hae-il played him, Kim Yun-seok puts his own spin on the great man in the story warring factions battling to remain in power and remain alive, with as much money as possible and hopefully without going to war. As the film opens the political leaders want to let the Japanese go home. Yi doesn't trust them and thinks they should attack. Complicating things is the fact that no one knows if they can trust the Ming leader. He is playing his own angle. Of course things end up moving toward war...
After just over an hour of political intrigue and maneuvering NORYANG switches gears to the reason everyone came to the theater and that is to see the spectacular sea battle, Taking up roughly half the film the final battles are jaw dropping and bone crushing as they navies clash in blood fights to the death, it's amazing. To be certain some of the computer generated images aren't flawless, but it doesn't matter since the drama and momentum is so strong we are carried along. Besides its only the odd shot and not sequences.
While I thought the film cold have been a bit clearer about some of the politics, my unhappiness was purely because the film moves through the non-action scenes with speed, I still knew what was going on and why. As a result by the time the ships are crashing into each other I was fully invested.
For those who are curious, I really have no opinion as to how this film compares to the first two. Each film is different enough that I don't want to compare them. Besides, the battle scenes in all three films kick serious ass which is all anyone needs to know- after all the battles are the selling point and make this film and the others must sees.
This is grand cinema. This is the sort of a film that you go to see in a theater because you can see it big and loud. It's a grand popcorn film of the highest order and highly recommended.
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