The film opens with the firefighters in the midst of an apartment building that is in blazes. Jaded veteran Jo Sang-woo and rookie Hyun-tae are caught in the upper levels. The two duck fireballs, avoid collapsing floors, and try to save any survivors as well as their fellow downed firefighters. In the aftermath, the innocent residents dramatically reach out to their loved ones as they are carried off on stretchers, and the firefighters give their fallen comrades the old melodramatic "You're not gonna' die on me!" speech. Jo Sang-woo lights up a cigarette and looks at the decimated building and his gut tells him... 'dum-dum-dum'... that the fire was set on purpose.

It turns out, there is an arsonist on the loose, an unstable but harmless looking pretty boy named Hee-soo. The movie script reasoning involves some murky psychology about how, as a child, he witnessed his father burning his sister alive, so now he holds firefighters responsible (???????) and likes to hang out in child burn units. He begins a cat and mouse game with the firefighters, taking special interest in Sang-woo and the arson investigator, and traps the firefighters by setting up modest looking alarms that soon become firestorms.

And the Bruckheimer bible says, "Ye, there shall be heroes, and much dramatic slow motion walking they will do, for they are heroes, and that is what heroes do. And the musical scoring shall be dramatic, so that, lest ye think they are not indeed heroes, thine ears will be assured that they are."

I guess what the real problem is, the job of firefighting is looked upon as being so selfless, you cannot help but place it on a pedestal and see it as anything less than noble. Law enforcement (in film, books, tv) has been portrayed with some gray and downright black areas because everyone has a little anti-authority bone in their body. Firefighters don't have that same exploitable quirk, so they are pretty much seen nothing less than noble angels of rescue. When creators try to probe any deeper, the only thing they seem to tap into is the macho male comradery. So, when it comes to firefighters, they are always molded into a shallow image. Writers could learn some lessons from former paramedic Joseph Connely's book "Bringing out the Dead "(and not the over the top Scorsese film adaptation), which was able to paint a more layered, warts and all view of paramedics.

Anyway, all the platitudes just go overboard. Director Yun-ho Yang (Fighter in the Wind) could have delivered a fine little b-movie thriller if he reigned in the insipid dramatic and false heroics. It just keeps piling it on. For instance, the finale blaze is set in a hospital. A traffic jam in the city has the firefighters running on foot to the call, and of course everyone in the city cheers and salutes them. Fine, but they push it even further. One of their buddies who is off duty (the family man who never takes time for his family, of course) is in the jam, and leaves his family so he can join his comrades. The film is laced with so much predictable saccharine, that you just know he's gonna' die because he's such a good guy, because he cannot afford good insurance or a fancy dinner for his family, because he's so dedicated, blah, blah, blah. All things I wouldn't be so heartless about if they weren't delivered with the subtlety of a Hallmark card. Likewise, you just know you're being set up for some mano y mano duel between Hee-soo and Sang-woo. Guess who wins?

The DVD: Tai Seng

Picture: Non-Anamorphic Widescreen. Here is a puzzler. Both the HK and the Korean editions are full-screen and 9according to reviews pretty weak), which makes one wonder why on earth such a film with an obvious high budget gets so poorly transferred. The image here isn't terrible; its not VCD or VHS quality, but you can still tell it isn't living up to its full potential. It is just a tad lacking in sharpness details and contrast depth and certainly the more high end your tv, the worse it will look. Still, the transfer has generally good details.

Sound: Korean Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and DTS, plus Cantonese DD5.1 and Mandarin 2.0 tracks with optional Chinese or English subtitles. Overall a pretty even mix, though the dialogue is standard with the sound fx and music being the real aggressors. As I said, the score is big, blustery, and bombastic, full of plenty of "hero" themes and, I swear, honest to god, opera underscoring. Amusingly, it reminded me of Metal Gear: Sold Snake. The action fx is pretty good, lots of bass response and convincing ambient fx.

Extras: Music Video– Theatrical Trailers.

Conclusion: Well, good fires. Overall pretty decent thrills in that department, though there is some shaky fx is a couple of scenes with bad composite work. Hokey script. Cliched characters. Light entertainment at best. The DVD presentation is pretty mediocre for such a large budget Korean film, but that seems to be the case with every region. Someday, somebody might make a good firefighter film. Rent it for some escapism.