Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Console best movie i've ever seen.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

mrsOGB I think Korean films are amazing. This movie is so good I watched it by myself, told hubby about it (he doesn't usually like foreign films) and he said he wanted to see, so we watched it the next day. It has an excellent cast, acting, and fight sequences. I feel like it had real heart and pride. The scenery and costumes are wonderful. Please watch it!

Sunny Kim The job of the critic is to honestly review the movie for the emotional content it delivers. The Admiral is a tearjerker that speaks of a man's principal to not give in even when the odds are stacked high against him. The story is focused on one of the historic naval battles during Japanese invasion of Korea in the middle ages when Korean navy led by Admiral Lee, our protagonist, managed to thwart off a much larger Japanese Navy. Lee had been a victim of political scraps and was made to step down from his post by the King himself only to be reinstated as he was needed when the situation turned for the very worst. On mainland, the invasion is threatening to takeover the capital and a reinforcement by sea will surely provide a finishing blow to it all. The Korean navy by this time had been reduced to a fraction of what it had been, with only 12 ships to spare against hundreds of the invader's. Fear is rife for treachery to breed, however, Lee's resolve is to the death so that he may save more people whose lives are at risk should the invasion succeed.A large portion of the movie is immersed in battle scenes as it unfolds in the roaring straits. There is an urgency when bystanders desperately try to send signals from the shore and loss is felt through the cries from a wife whose husband had to sacrifice himself to stop an enemy boat. People's war is being fought here. Precise detail of the historic accuracy and depth the character are lacking but the movie compensates by focusing on Admiral's determination, which is close to being a death wish, as the motivator for his soldiers to confront the impossible task at hand.He possibly can't die, though he meets an end similar to Nelson according to history, despite throwing himself in the thick of it all he survives one wave after another as it continues to wring out the tears from grown men as people bleed and pull on the ropes with bare hands to save his warship for the final wave.There is no order in which chaos is served in war as neither are there boundaries that mark the swell of emotions on choppy waters but it is a fairly well balanced portrayal of nations by any means though it has nothing to do winning than it is do with that gut feeling about a man who stood for something.

juanmuscle "How can we stop their suffering, mold fear into courage and manifold manifestations of your greatest courage may endure anything, the grace of god lies not in a whirlpool but in the hearts of peasants?" I don't know the answer to such questions, and I probably shan't ever, I don't think one oughtn't to know things. I don't know exactly what I just saw, but my heart, transfigured, my soul transmuted, and my mind transcending, has felt the effects of - THE ADMIRAL...' And this legend, fact, tale, as it unfolded not without style and charm bolstered by an honest script, will endure the ages, way after I we are gone, this story must survive. True masterpiece theater. When the Asians are on, they are extremely hard to beat, not just in battle but at the arts! Bravo.

Semisonic There were some mighty promises about The Admiral: Roaring Currents. Like, that it's some sort of Korean 300, based on a glorious page of their own history. A tale of 12 ships that opposed a Japanese fleet of more than 300 vessels and threw it back is definitely worth delving into, even if the modern cinematographic interpretation did it as little justice as Zack Snyder's gore-praising action did to the Ancient Greek legend.Well, from the very beginning it was obvious that we're not gonna get the same sort of action from The Admiral. The budget of the Korean film was noticeably thinner than one of the Hollywood blockbuster, for which it tried to compensate with a typical Eastern dramatic approach: lots of close-ups of faces lit with such intense emotions it seemed the people whose faces belonged to could explode from within any second. Add some really bravado, albeit pretty generic, music to the mix, and you get a recipe for a Middle Age Oriental Molotov cocktail that can't wait to go boom.Despite this rather pompous premise, the first act of The Admiral is indeed very promising. Every single aspect of the story is telling us that the remainder of the Korean fleet simply stands no chance. The morals of the troops are below the waterline, with the most pressing dilemma being suicide vs treachery. The main hero is old, his health ailing and even his closest aides have no slightest faith in their mission's success.At some point you start getting restless to finally have a glimpse of any silver lining at all, because the film doesn't even try to speak riddles to you and make you believe it has something major up its sleeve. So, except some pretty watered-down and vague hints, you're left with nothing to expect. Which is a bit disappointing, because, without any promises of a tour de force by a tactical genius, one usually has to brace himself for a showcase of deus-ex-machinas coming up one after another.Unfortunately, when the action starts, the worst fears come true. You might be hoping to see something very cunning, borderline diabolical, which would explain how that measly fleet of 12 ships could pull a trick the history tells it did. Well, don't hope for too much. Because what you'll see will make Pirates of the Caribbean an apex of naval tactics in comparison. In other words, "they shoot and miss, we shoot and hit hard", accompanied with the same old close-ups of the Admiral, who seemingly manages to blow up enemy ships and pump strength into his men by willpower alone.One could hope that it's gonna get better after the first tide of ridiculousness goes down. On the contrary. If at first the film was at least trying to explain its strategic thinking, no matter how insane, then after a certain point it all goes haywire. It's impossible to understand what is going on and why the characters do what they do, but clearly the Koreans have some sort of collective enlightenment channeled from up above, because no matter what the Japanese troops do, they fail at sinking a single enemy ship, while their ranks recede with a terrifying pace. And even the dramatic flashbacks of the Admiral sharing some obscure pieces of war wisdom can't possibly explain this miracle.The anticlimactic finale of this story that was planned as a suicide mission all along tries to distract the viewer's attention from its utter implausibility by throwing in some social message and underlining the importance of the common people. But no matter how hard those common people bow into the camera, they fail to make up for what was supposed to be a really gritty tale of a dramatic moment in the national history of Korea, but instead ended up a pretty cheap and plain B-movie about costumed men muddying the waters with very tense and heroic faces.