The three lead actors are among South Korea's most talented and loved, and the story of what Japan did to Korea is true (enslavement, rape, and mass murder, just as they inflicted on Nanking, China), a story that many Americans don't know about our ally. Though there are some plot gaps and sequencing gaffes creating a cut and paste effect in a few scenes, the film is well worth watching because of its themes, both historic and dramatic, and because of the twists, intrigues, betrayals, and heroism of this Korean story set in the face of the horrors of war and occupation. The film opens and closes in black and white, except at the end a spectral bit of horrifying color followed by the anguished face of the child. It follows a thrilling yet heartbreaking action sequence and closes with an elegiac triumph soaked in grief. This is, after all, a war story. There is a reason why Asians, especially the Koreans, have captured the world's attention while Hollywood continues to slide. They have tremendous talent, imagination, brilliance, and expertise along with a thousand-year history of culture, ideas, and experience. And because they are that good.