The sumptuous historical war spectacle takes us to the area of present-day South Korea in the late 16th century, and “Hansan: Rising Dragon” is the second part of an informal trilogy filmed by Korean filmmaker Kim Han-min. It is interesting that the plot of “Hansan” takes place five years earlier than the first part of the trilogy “The Admiral: Roaring Currents”, and in both films we follow naval battles during the wars between Japan and Korea. Better said during the attempt of the Japanese invasion of Korea and the attempt to conquer the then kingdom of Joseon, and in the center of attention in “Hansan” is the battle at Hansan Island.
And indeed, this was a sumptuous and first-class historical spectacle that was filmed in a fantastic way, and I don’t remember a film in which naval battles were shown in such a high quality. Although “Hansan” is the second part of the trilogy, the story can be followed regardless of whether you have seen “Admiral” before, and everything that happens in the first half of the film is actually a prelude to a great naval battle. As is often the case with these East Asian films, the story is a bit complicated to follow up to that point because we have a lot of characters and it takes a while to figure out who is who. But when the final part of the film and the showdown between the Korean and Japanese navies begins, everything that happened before actually becomes irrelevant and all those who love historical – war spectacles will certainly enjoy these fantastic scenes.
Although I’m not exactly a connoisseur of East Asian history, it seems that Kim portrayed all these historical circumstances correctly, and visually it’s a film that takes your breath away. And while Hollywood has apparently completely focused on superhero blockbusters, and the once-popular historical spectacles have almost disappeared, Korea clearly spares no expense when it comes to such films. And for a reason, because “Hansan” was watched by more than five million viewers in the first 15 days in the cinemas there and came very close to “Admiral”, which with almost 18 million cinema tickets purchased is still the most watched Korean film in history.