Operation Chromite review – clunky South Korean war thriller

Here’s a really old-fashioned war film, a recent hit at the South Korean box office, but creaky and clunky, weirdly reminiscent of big-budget prestige movies of years gone by such as The Longest Day, which used to always crop up on bank holiday TV. Yet this has the faintly sepia-digital tint of a modern period blockbuster. It’s set during the Korean war in 1950 and is all about the secret spy mission that preceded General Douglas MacArthur’s high-risk plan to attack North Korean-held territory at the Port of Incheon. CIA-backed South Korean partisans risked (and lost) their lives behind enemy lines posing as military officials, gathering intelligence about mine placements and other fortifications. Lee Jung-jae plays Jang, the undercover operative working for the west; Lee Beom-su is the brutal North Korean colonel Kim, and Liam Neeson telexes in his silly performance as MacArthur, posing with borderline ridiculous dark glasses and corncob pipe, often finishing a scene with a ferocious scowl, like Lloyd Bridges in Airplane! On the bridge of a warship, MacArthur says things like: “Age may wrinkle the skin, but, if you give up your ideals, it will wrinkle the soul!” Doing too many movies like this could necessitate some kind of spiritual moisturiser.