El almirante: Mar de fuego

Recommend reading about Yi Sun Shin before watching this movie. It's relatively difficult to follow the first half of this movie if you don't know something about him. Do yourself a favor and wiki Yi sun shin. It will give a quick glimpse into the man and back drops of this conflict. All historical accounts indicate that one ship went against superior numbers and he won. There are a lot of dramatic interpretations, but you will experience general gist of how he exploited fear in his own men and Japanese navy which suffered heavy casualties by Yi over 6 years of war. One other note: Korean uses a flat bottom ship. Japanese uses more traditional design. Korean navy has zero turtle iron clad ship in this engagement. That should be enough to enjoy one of the best ancient naval battle captured by this movie.

I stumbled upon this movie without having ever heard of it, and boy was I glad to watch it. It's the movie about one of the most famous Korean generals in Korean history during a crucial battle in the war with Japan. The acting in the movie was solid, even if I didn't understand the language. The naval battle scenes and how Admiral Yi used naval tactics to fight his enemy were realistic and breathtaking at the same time. I'd compare this with the 300: Rise of an Empire movie, with far less CGI, fantasy elements, better acting, and more realistic portrayal of naval battle. It's pretty amazing what they could do with ships back in those days.

The history/characters in the movie is a little hard to follow if you don't know about it beforehand or don't speak Korean/Japanese, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit and learned a little bit of Korean history in the process.

For me this felt like a mix between "Lincoln" and "300". Mainly because it's not as in depth and really realistically done like "Lincoln" but it isn't as over the top as "300" either. Some audiences seem to have liked "War of Arrows" better. But I personally enjoyed this film a bit more. The first half of this movie is basically the build up before the grand battle. Where team Korea has the odds completely against them in battle. But despite the obstacles in their path, the men still go to battle in order to fight and protect their country. The story in my opinion is about perseverance and having the will power to go on even when you feel that the odds are against you...And I liked that. Although if they put more emphasis on the Admirals planning and strategy, it would have made the movie better. Mainly because Admiral Yi is known not only for his courage and willpower, but a amazing strategist. It isn't a superbly well made movie when it comes to the story, character development and direction. But it's a very watchable movie that still has a bit of a impact. So yeah, I recommend this film.

7.8/10

The Admiral Roaring Currents is a very good period battle picture in the same vein as John Woo's Red Cliff. Although this film is quite large in scope, it is a smaller scale epic than the massive masterpiece Red Cliff. Choi Min Sik of Oldboy and I Saw The Devil fame is an admiral who command the small in number naval fleet versus the massive invading Japanese fleet. The few stood against many is a common and effective theme in this sort of film. Forgive my ignorance, but my knowledge of Korean/Japanese history is limited. So I have no idea how historically accurate this movie is. I did enjoy it regardless and in my opinion, I thought this film is very good. The storytelling and acting is solid and the film looks real sharp as well. The battle/action scenes are in abundance and while there is CGI used in the film, it is used well and classier than most Hollywood productions. I did think this film needed more blood as this is a battle picture. However, this is a minor critique as this film is indeed roaring. It also is in my book a very engaging and well crafted movie.

movie tells us story of the battle for Roaring Currents during the invasion of Japanese to Korea in 1597. the main character of the movie is Admiral Admiral Yi Sun-Shin who fought with 13 ships against 133 ( 330 in movie ) and he really was a legendary navy admiral in real life , on same level with Nelson . the best thing in the movie are the navy battles scenes , its the best navy war movie i have ever seen in my life its just pure joy to watch those massive battle scenes loved it , the battles are similar to some other Korean movies like ( Mu SA or Arrow the ultimate weapon ) . however the movie suffers from character development , there are some cheesy moments that feel totally not necessary. Japanese people look like evil guys without personalities overall i recommend to see it , even if you wont like the whole movie , you will definitely enjoy amazing navy war scenes which are like half of the movie .