Plot
In 2003, digging up remains at a Korean War battlefield to set up a memorial site, a South Korean Army excavation team notifies an elderly man that they identified some remains as his own.
The story then shifts to Seoul in June 1950, where the Lee family lives. Jin-tae Lee (Jang Dong-gun) owns a shoeshine stand to pay for his younger brother Jin-seok's (Won Bin) education. Jin-tae's fiancée Young-shin (Lee Eun-ju) works with the Lee's noodle shop. On June 25, North Korea invades the country. Jin-seok is conscripted into the army and when his brother tries to get him off the train, he is conscripted as well. Jin-tae is told by his commanding officer that if he can earn the highest award for a South Korean soldier which is the Taeguk Cordon of the Order of Military Merit, his brother can be sent home. Jin-tae willingly volunteers for many dangerous suicidal missions. He is promoted to the rank of Chungsa (Sergeant). Soon American-led U.N. forces invade South Korea from Incheon. The battle of Pyongyang soon follows, and many die on both sides. During the battle, Jin-tae captures an important North Korean captain (Choi Min-sik) and is finally awarded with the medal.
As the unit continue north, they see the aftermath of a few massacres. On one patrol, the unit encounters a group of North Korean soldiers hiding in a tunnel and one of them turns out to be Yong-seok. Jin-tae and the others want to execute them. Instead, the group are taken as POW's. Yong-seok speaks with Jin-seok, telling him about events at home. Soon China enters the war on the communist side. Yong-seok is killed in a crossfire by Jin-tae when some prisoners make a stand with a hostage. On their way home Jin-tae gets his medal and Young-shin along with Jin-seok is captured and taken by the anti-communist militias. After Jin-seok escapes from a guard and Jin-tae tries to hold the anti-communists back from killing Young-shin, it is discovered she signed up for the communist Workers' Party of Korea. A chaotic attempt by prisoners is made to escape. During the struggle, Young-shin is shot and killed by anti-communist militias, and the brothers are arrested for trying to rescue her. Jin-seok cries out as Young-shin's body thrown into the trench along with the other previously executed prisoners. In the jail, Jin-seok quietly mocks Jin-tae for Young-shin's death. Jin-tae is later brought in for questioning by a security commander. His request to release his brother is refused, and a Chinese artillery strike takes place. The security commander then orders the prison to be set on fire where Jin-seok is being held. Trying to rescue his brother, Jin-tae loses his consciousness in the artillery strike and wakes up to mistakenly believe his brother died in the fire. He brutally kills the security commander by bludgeoning him to death just before he is restrained by Chinese soldiers.
In truth, Jin-seok had been transferred to a military hospital, after barely escaping the burning cell, and being saved by a soldier nicknamed Uncle Yang. However, Jin-seok was shot in the escape. Uncle Yang also brings a letter that Jin-tae wrote, and says that Jin-tae was never found but he doubts Jin-tae deserted. When Uncle Yang hands Jin-seok the letter, Jin-seok is apathetic towards both the letter and his brother's uncertain fate. However, the next day, he learns from two South Korean military officers that his brother had defected to the North Koreans. Afterward, he reads Jin-tae's letter to their mother and is brought to tears. He immediately rejoins the army to fight at the 38th parallel, but is denied permission to fight. Jin-seok escapes his camp and runs to the North Korean site, surrendering to them and claiming that he is Jin-tae's brother; Jin-tae is now the leader of an elite North Korean unit. They send him with an escort to validate his claim, but the North Koreans are attacked by South Korean forces and American warplanes, and Jin-seok's guards are killed by an American fighter plane. Jin-seok fights his way through the soldiers before the feared North Korean Infantry Unit known as "Flag Unit", commanded by Jin-tae, arrives to reinforce the North Korean lines. The appearance of Flag Unit turns the tables and forces the South Koreans to retreat.
After killing a few South Korean soldiers and not recognizing his own brother, an enraged Jin-tae tries to kill Jin-seok. The two fight while Jin-seok begs his brother to recognize him. When Jin-tae is about to shoot him, he is wounded by a bayonet strike. Jin-seok tries to carry him off the battlefield, but is wounded himself as well. Jin-tae finally recognizes his brother. Jin-seok refuses to retreat without Jin-tae, but he convinces him to leave, promising that he will meet him back at home. Jin-tae presents Jin-seok a silver pen which Jin-seok had owned, but was retrieved by Jin-tae at the site of the burnt jail; it was a gift from Jin-tae earlier, in hopes of sending Jin-seok to a university. Jin-seok refuses it and gives it back to Jin-tae, requesting in tears to give it back to him when they would meet again. Jin-tae promises this and also promises to finish the shoes he was making for Jin-seok when he went back, and sends Jin-seok off. The wounded Jin-seok retreats while Jin-tae holds off the wave of Chinese and North Korean infantry with a Maxim machine gun; providing cover for his brother and the retreating South Koreans. KPA and PVA forces finally kill Jin-tae in a barrage of bullets. Jin-tae gives one last look at his desperately fleeing brother before, with a look of satisfaction from saving his brother, he dies on the battlefield.
The film returns to 2003, and the now-aged Jin-seok is shown at the excavation site, examining Jin-tae's dug-up items, including the long-lost silver pen, and begging his brother's remains to speak to him, quoting their promises made on the battlefield, as his granddaughter looks on with sympathy. It is ironic that the silver pen ends up in the possession of Jin-seok in this sequence where he reunites with the remains of his brother, Jin-tae, as the last time he saw his brother alive Jin-tae had promised to return the pen to Jin-seok.
The film then returns to the past, the 1950s, ending in the aftermath of the Korean War. Jin-seok returns to his mother, and sees the shoes his brother actually finished, and then heads off with Young-shin's younger siblings in a peaceful Seoul. He reassures them that he will return to school, thereby fulfilling the promise he made to Jin-tae.
Read more about this topic: Taegukgi (film)
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““The plot thickens,” he said, as I entered.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
“The westward march has stopped, upon the final plains of the Pacific; and now the plot thickens ... with the change, the pause, the settlement, our people draw into closer groups, stand face to face, to know each other and be known.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)