Directorted by Lee Seok-hun
Genre : Adventure, Action, Comedy
Starring : Yoo Hae-jin, Kim Nam-gil, Son Ye-jin
130 Min
Do you know the three most anticipated movies this year? They are Myeongnyang, Sea Fog and Pirate: The Bandit Who Goes to Sea. The movie Pirate in particular has continued to be popular compared to the other two movies and it is the funniest. When this movie was released, Pirate was unnoticed because Myeongnyang, which also has the sea as its background, was more popular. The setting of the movie is the early years of the Joseon Dynasty.
The main character Jang Sa-jung who was a soldier for the Koryo Kingdom decides to be a bandit because he was angry about the Whiwado Retreat that Lee Seong-gye, the first king of the Joseon Dynasty, caused. Before the founding of the Joseon Kingdom, a Joseon envoy loses the Great Seal that the emperor of the Ming Dynasty gave him. He lost the seal during his return trip from China because a whale attacked his ship and eat it. After Jang Sa-jung and his colleagues hear this news, they go to sea to hunt the whale and get the seal. At the same time, the envoy asks the Joseon military forces to find the seal. The Joseon soldiers ask a pirate to help them because he has a lot of information about the sea. During the hunt to find the seal, the royal forces, bandits and pirates fight each other in a naval battle.
In this movie, the whale also seems like a main character. It is very exciting to see the scene in which the whale appears through the magic of computer graphics. Because of the quality of the computer graphics, viewers may forget the whale isn’t real and even feel sympathy for it. To realistically express the whale, the artist continuously changes the whale with computer graphics for a year. Moreover, this movie has some very funny scenes. For example, You Hae-jin hilariously demonstrates how to swim and a bandit creates an embarrassing situation through miscommunication.
However, this movie also shows negative things about that time period. The pirates successfully attack a royal naval base, stealing 1ship and burning the rest. As a result, the soldiers attack a nearby village and kill everyone. The soldiers claimed that the villagers were the pirates who attacked the naval base, protecting themselves from punishment. Another scene shows the violence of human beings towards the whale. Finally in the last scene Jang Sa-jung goes into the bedroom of Lee Seong-gye and says, “What is our country? The Ming Kingdom is our country? Why should our people have to be sacrificed for the Great Seal of the Ming Kingdom? Think about that. If you will really make a new country for the people, I will also be your people. And then he disappears.” This scene expresses the need for independence and the necessity of a great leader who thinks about his people.
I recommend this movie because of the spectacular battle scenes, the excellent computer graphics, and the great humor.
