@1S0- I'm glad you got a chance to see this! I know that most people really love TAE GUK GI, and I tend to stray off the more popular path (not always, but sometimes) and look for the gems that are in the same vein. This reminded me a lot of Hawks AIR FORCE, a group of guys thrown into a terrible situation, not exactly heroes but forced into those roles as the tide of history is swallowing them up. The story itself is what is so mind blowing to me, that a man could have worn so many different uniforms, essentially fighting his way across Asia and Europe (and surviving) one of the world's biggest conflicts. You are right about the relationship building, though I wonder if over time and sharing those brutal experiences of fighting, the gulag, and getting farther and farther from their homes sort of left them with no choice but to be close. The childhood connection and the themes of racism and superiority the Japanese held over the Koreans is a really interesting one-I wonder how this director would do with material about the Korean comfort women a despicable moment in the Japanese world war 2 history. Still there is a bit of cheesiness and I am not sure how accurate the story is to the real story, still pretty incredible. Thanks for watching!
@ET - Yeah Sam is totally right, the manga is great and they usually are. You want some real metal, bizarre, weird-as-hell, but insanely epic you should check out BERSERK the manga is disturbing, but the film is fantastic and I did enjoy the more recent show animations aside (also see COWBOY BEBOP, the music alone is incredible). As for AKIRA there are so many themes, I feel like I could fill a notebook with rants on the symbols throughout power, corruption, greed, politics, religion--so much that I don't think I even understand everything. While the animation itself is a bit older, its detail is incredible and much better than Dragon Ball Z (though I did enjoy the adventures of Goku). There are rumors that Taika Waititi was involved in a live action version, but I am not sure how true that is, but would love it because he's a great director. I am glad you enjoyed some of the films in my list, I always wonder what others think of my weird taste haha. Thanks for watching!