Set during the Korean War, Brotherhood follows two siblings dragged into conscription and their opposing experiences in the trenches. What starts off as predictable melodrama takes a welcome twist as elder brother Jin-Tae (Jang), in trying to earn a medal that will allow him to send his younger sibling Jin-Seok (Won) home, becomes consumed by the glory of personal success.
Soapy elements rear their tiresome heads again in a needlessly dragged-out third act, but for a large proportion of its running time this is a powerful, if traditional, war movie. And it's amazing the pyrotechnics you can buy for $13 million in Korea!