Road No. 1

The MBC drama Road No. 1 (로드 넘버원), starring Kim Ha Neul, is available on hulu with English subtitles.Hulu has been adding Korean dramas in the last few weeks. I suppose they found out Korean dramas are popular with a substantial number of people in the United States and elsewhere, and many of these fans use the internet to watch them.

Kim Ha Neul reminds me of Lee Eun Joo in Taegukgi -- their characters endure a lot, and yet they somehow seem delicate. The first opening battle sequence attempted to be realistic in the fashion of Taegukgi and Saving Private Ryan (though there was less shaky cam), but the combat was too fake. And the CGI for the explosions was very noticeable. A squad against... what was supposed to be a platoon? And the main character decides to call in artillery on his own position? And then orders his men to fix bayonets and rush the enemy? Hmmm...

But if I continue watching it, it will be for the melodrama - the separation of lovers, the mandatory love triangle, misunderstandings, plus the danger and tragedy of the Korean War as the setting of the story.

(I think the khaki dress uniforms are great, too. It's too bad the US Army got rid of its own khakis.)

I'm waiting for the DVD of 71 Into the Fire (포 화 속으로) to be released.

The Psychology of Combat
When I was in high school, the argument was frequently made in class and in "educational films" that soldiers must learn to demonize and dehumanize the enemy in order to kill. Is this really the case? Do soldiers depersonalize as a psychological defense mechanism, to the point of becoming numb to the killing? Or do they have to personalize even more -- making combat "personal" -- in order to kill too? That is, we make out our opponents to be true believers or those who intentionally wish to destroy our homes and so on -- and so they get what they deserve. What of the emotions of hate and anger?


Without the belief that our cause is right and just how can we kill without losing their sanity or their soul?

Is it the case that even with the conditioning techniques employed by the U.S. military to make it easier for soldiers to kill that some intellectual and emotional reinforcement is necessary? I need to finish reading Col. Grossman's books.

The Warrior Science Group

Misc.
A thought on Asians adopting the ghetto look -- this is a "safe" and "accepted" form of rebellion (in East Asia as well as the U.S.?), but is it also a way to be anti-white (or to reject "white" culture)? An identification with the "oppressed" against the perceived "oppressor"?