Netflix Surprise Drops a Brutal Movie Telling a War Story Most Completely Ignore

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Netflix has now added a 2017 South Korean action drama called The Battleship Island, which offers up an often ignored part of World War II. It is a film that every war movie fan needs to see.

Why Is The Battleship Island Worth Watching on Netflix?

Image Courtesy of Filmmaker R&K

The Battleship Island is a South Korean drama about an attempted prison break from a forced labor camp on Hashima Island during World War II. This was set during Imperial Japan’s occupation of Kora during the war, where over 400 Koreans were forced into hard labor on the island, until they had enough and attempted a daring escape. One-part war movie and one-part prison escape film, it told a story that most people don’t even know about, especially those who live in Western countries.

While Japan has discounted the film’s story as distorting the truth, director Ryoo Seung-wan said that it is “fact-based fiction” and is based on historical records and first-hand testimony by the survivors. He also said that the film wasn’t supposed to be anti-Japan or to push for Koran nationalism, but was simply a story about how war can turn men into monsters. Interestingly, it also saw critics from South Korea, who claimed it showed a “pro-Japanese” colonist view of history by telling the story in a movie for entertainment purposes.

The biggest thing to note is that there is still an attempt to erase this part of World War II history, and this is a movie that exists to show that something happened on Hashima Island. While there is still a push to demonize anyone who believes the atrocities the film presents, there are also survivors who have spoken out about the events that were presented here. Even on forums like Reddit, there are arguments on both sides, with some believing that Japan could never have committed such atrocities.

This has even passed its way into The Battleship Island reviews. Critics gave the movie a 67% score, while the audience rating is a much-higher 80%. Critics seemed split on whether the movie was narratively consistent or convincing, although most agreed it was a technical achievement. However, many of the audience reviews praised the story for showing there is both ugliness and goodness in humans, and this was a story that showed both sides of the coin.

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