[FICTION VS. HISTORY] Heroics ramped up in ‘Great Battle’ : Mother Nature wasn’t as cruel in real life, and general’s name isn’t quite certain
The Ansi soldiers were inspired by the words of their leader and braced themselves to fight a battle that seemed impossible to win.
The bravery of Yang and his small Ansi Fortress, which led to improbable triumph, is what attracted more than five million people to march to theaters to watch the mega-budget period epic “The Great Battle,” directed by Kim Kwang-sik, which opened in September. Korean heartthrob Zo In-sung played the courageous Yang, contributing to the box office success. But “The Great Battle” is a film based on history, and some moments don’t ring true. There are fictionalized characters, as well as invented or exaggerated events.
In the film, General Yang walks around the fortress, desperately trying to figure out ways how to protect his people as the Tang Army builds an earthen ramp to get over the walls of the fortress. He sees young children playing with soil, trying to build caves by digging holes that crumble. This inspires Yang: He’ll dig an underground tunnel so the earthen ramp will crumble before reaching the top. The Ansi people narrowly manage to complete the tunnel underneath the ramp as work is almost complete. However, Mother Nature gets in the way. Heavy rainfall stymies the Ansi people’s initial plan to light fires on pillars in the tunnel. When the wooden pillars burned, the ramp would collapse. A group of courageous people decides to go into the tunnel and chop down the pillars themselves, which will eventually crumble and kill them. As the people insist on their suicide mission, Yang looks at them with a tearful gaze. The first group goes in and succeeds in protecting the Ansi Fortress.
There’s not much of a written record of the battle in Ansi or the character of General Yang, forcing the writer and director to use their imagination to recreate the characters. Zo himself said in an interview with local media that such a lack of information took off the pressure, and gave him a lot of leeway to reimagine the general.
In the movie, Yang is depicted as a friendly character who lives for his people, brings gifts to a family with a newborn, helps an old grandmother with dementia find her way back home and rolls up his sleeves valiantly to stand at the fore in preparation for battle. In the movie, even when he shoots an arrow that plunges into the left eye of Emperor Taizong, it was an image of the people of Ansi that gave him the strength to achieve that shot.
In reality, there’s no record of what kind of person Yang was. Even his name, Yang Man-chun, is still not absolutely certain. There is a historical record that states that Emperor Taizong injured his left eye, but when and how is unknown. Emperor Taizong is depicted in the movie like a tyrant, which is not how he is described in historic records like “The Chronicles of the Three States.”
YIM SEUNG-HYE [sharon@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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