EXCERPT:

“Over the years, Hollywood has produced many a historical movie “based on a true story” that takes the whole concept of artistic liberties too far, usually in the form of cramming an unconvincing and unwanted romance plot straight through the center of an otherwise perfectly good action film (looking right at you, Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor).

Fortunately for the historically inquisitive, some cinematic gems come out of Asia, and the Korean Cultural Centre has afforded me the opportunity to see one of them.

Hansan: Rising Dragon isn’t just any gem though. It’s a crown jewel.

Just for context, I was born and raised in Canada, and therefore my education in history was always very Eurocentric. As a result, when I think of the late 1500s, my mind conjures images of Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, and 16th Century London’s last major plague outbreak – which, funnily enough, peaked in 1592; the very same year of the main battle depicted in Hansan: Rising Dragon (한산: 용의 출현).

There are so many aspects of this film to appreciate, I had trouble choosing what to highlight here, because if I tried to write about everything I noted while watching, this would be the length of a novel (and it’s already really long. As it is, the topics I decided to concentrate on are so rich with fascinating information, this blog will be broken into three posts.

The movie begins with bloodied Japanese soldiers explaining to their new commander, Wakisaka Yasuharu (脇坂 安治), that in their last clash with the Koreans, Admiral Yi Sun-sin unleashed a warship so powerful and horrifying they call it “bokkaisen” (a sea monster from ancient Japanese mythology).

The ship is 거북선 (Geobukseon), a large, fully-enclosed battleship so deadly effective it was used by the Korean navy for five centuries, and a crucial piece in Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s halting of the Japanese invasion.

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