YMMV / Taegukgi

• Jerkass Woobie: Jin-tae gradually loses his sanity over and becomes more cruel the course of the movie, but he's doing it all for the sake of Jin-seok returning home, his girlfriend is killed just as he tries to rescue her, and lastly, he goes down making a Last Stand to ensure Jin-seok's escape from the battlefield.
• Nightmare Fuel: If you didn't think War Is Hell before, you will after watching this movie.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Jin-tae sacrificing his life to save Jin-seok at the end.
    • Jin-seok "reunites" with his brother's remains at a digsite, begging and crying to him to talk to him.
  • Young-shin's death. You thought Jin-tae and Jin-seok come for her rescue would be a Hope Spot but she gets fatally shot before any of them could escape.
• The Woobie: Jin-seok has it rough. His brother, Jin-tae, works as a shoe shiner just so he can afford an education. When the North Koreans attack, he is forced to serve in the military and Jin-tae constantly risks his life just so he can rise in the military ranks in order for Jin-seok to be sent home safely. He has witnesses the death of his friends and Jin-tae become more a monster for his sake. He survives the war, but at the cost of Jin-tae's life. He lives on not ever seeing his brother again and breaks down to tears seeing his remains at an excavation sight 50 years later.