Hansan: Rising Dragon is the second of Korean director Kim Han-Min's Admiral Yi Sun-Sin trilogy. It's actually a prequel to The Admiral: Roaring Currents, which was originally a standalone movie and has different actors in some of the roles. It was a big success so Kim is coming back to Admiral Yi's other famous victories. Yi Sun-Sin is in contention for greatest naval commander in history, scoring a string of incredible victories. Thus he is a national Korean hero. This film specifically covers the Battle of Hansan on July 8 1592. In this encounter Yi used his famous crane formation to pulverize a larger Japanese fleet.
The historical context is the Imjin War. Under Toyotomo Hideoyoshi, Japan embarked on a scheme to conquer Ming China. To get there the samurai-led armies needed to pass through Korea (called Joseon at the time). Korea refused to oblige, so they launched what was the largest amphibious invasion until the Normandy Landings in World War II. The Japanese ran roughshod over southern Korea in an orgy of murder and rape. Quickly, however, naval victories by Admiral Yi and the rise of effective guerilla armies turned what was to be a quick prelude to an invasion of China into a protracted slog. The Battle of Hansan in particular did massive damage to Japanese naval strength, making it difficult to reinforce and supply the invasion force from Japan.
Like The Admiral, this is very much a nationalistic film. In fact this movie may have a problem emotionally connecting with audiences who are not patriotic Koreans. The main issue is that most of the characters are not terribly complex. There's a large collection of patriotic Korean characters. The exception is the token competent, a subordinate of Yi's who constantly questions his superior's judgment and then panics and almost upsets the admiral's grand battle plan. There's a pair of spy characters that both really brave and noble. Admiral Yi is presented as a reserved and very wise figure. There is an older officer and former mentor of his who I find pretty cool. At the start of the battle he scouts ahead and gets into some real danger. Junsa, a Japanese samurai who defects to the Korean side, has the most going for him. There actually was a Japanese general who switched sides so his story is not unbelievable (if used to further puff up Admiral Yi's character). Compared to Kim's last Admiral Yi film, the Japanese are portrayed much better. They're still on the villainous side, but not as horribly cartoonish. Main antagonist Admiral Wakisaka is shown to be competent and brave, only undone after a couple subordinates' failures and surprises make him lose his cool.
In spite of many one-dimensional characters, Hansan should still be fascinating for those interested in the history. The movie takes its time getting to the battle, delving into the wider strategies of the Japanese and Korean forces. The greatest challenge in these Admiral Yi movies is trying to create some tension. Yi's victories were usually very one-sided. Kim focuses on the intelligence war for a bit to create some tension. When the final battle comes around he does a good job of creating excitement for its early stages. At several points it looks like the Japanese are going to smash up the Koreans, only to get a surprise. Still, the battle starts to get pretty one-sided by the end, but not too dragged out. There is a concurrent land battle that we go to every now and then that shows the Japanese doing much better.
Those who have played Age of Empires II will love the involvement of turtle ships. There's actually a subplot where a flaw is determined with them, so they're ordered to stay out of the battle. The guy in charge of them gets emotional about this and makes a surprise return in the main battle to show off some new improvements. Kim's previous movie The Admiral was set at a time where the turtle ships had been destroyed, so it's nice to finally see them in onscreen action.
Overall Hansan: Rising Dragon is a neat battle movie and an improvement from Kim's previous depiction of Admiral Yi. It doesn't have the strongest character work, but the military strategy is fascinating and the final battle looks cool.
Rating: 7/10
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