[add’l remarks][movie review] R2B Return to Base: A message of hope?
— Written by: Stephe Thornton @Cloud USA.org
» My previous post and movie review Breaking it down: R2B Return to Base at the AMC Colonial 18 in Atlanta is HERE.
(Image courtesy of CJ Entertainment.)
It’s been a almost year since R2B: Return to Base (or Soar Into The Sun, or Return To Base, or Aigle Noir, or R2B: Powrót do bazy, or Black Eagle, etc. depending on where you live) first premiered on its home turf in South Korea, last August 2012, and zipped around the world from there. It’s also been a while since I watched it, and with it being a nice lazy Tuesday night, I was in the mood for a good action flick and the movie beckoned.
As I got into the final missions and the moments where South Korean and U.S.A. brass were verbally sparring, it suddenly dawned on me that of all the messages that came out of this film, the one thing that I’ve seen no one out there mention is that it carries a message of hope. Hope for the future.
South Korea and North Korea came together and cooperated with each other against a common foe. North Korea gave the South complete permission to come right across the Demilitarized Zone, get their lost man, and dump an open can of whoop ass on the Northern rebels, which included destroying all the planes and Northern technology that the rebels had amassed. South Korea was like, Sure thing, we’ll be right on over to kill ’em and blow your—ahem, their stuff up for you. No problem! Do you know how unlikely that is to happen? With the way Kim JongUn postured, spewed a lot of useless hot air, and showed his ass the first five months of this year, you should.
In the real world, in my opinion, the South and the North would have been trying neutralize the threat to themselves, but separately. Cooperation? Bah. As far as I’m concerned, the North would have wanted to reclaim the rebel base for their own use, not to mention the South’s lost man, though it wasn’t the South’s fault that their man was there. They would have denied the South any satisfaction over the wrong done to them because that’s just how they roll on the Haterade Train. They sure as heck would have waited to see if the rebels could make a dent in the U.S. with that warhead before moving in on them at all (a move that the U.S. would have nipped in the bud with a quickness). Talk about a hot mess on the Korean peninsula.
But in the film, both sides communicated off screen, probably yelled back and forth quite a bit, but agreed to let the South take care of business while the North cooled its jets.
The South also stood up for itself to the U.S. brass when it came to being the one to not only get satisfaction for their country, but save the U.S.A. from the Northern warhead. What’s the real message there? Yeah, you’re the Big Dog in The Yard, but we can save the world too. Stand back.
In my initial review, I was of a mind that just as Director Shin SangOk kept the Northern enemy nebulous for the most part in Red Muffler (or Red Scarf, 1964), Director Kim DongWon seemed to follow the same tact with R2B, as if trying not to exacerbate the dangerous armistice between both halves of the peninsula while entertaining South Koreans with their first aerial combat film. But what if it went deeper than that for Director Kim? What if him making rebels the bad guys rather than the Northern regime outright, and the cooperation between North, South, and U.S., was his way of trying to get people to see how things should be, and to think? And have hope, and strive for that?
R2B was made to mark the 60th anniversary of the END of the Korean War, after all.
Just some food for thought. Thanks for letting me share it with you.
— Stephe @cloudusa.wordpress.com / CloudUSA.org
Cloud USA 
Hmmm very interest Stephe.
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Really interesting Stephe as they say food for thought. We must really analyze.
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Interesting take, Stephe. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.
Terri :-}
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