As the city is later overrun with North Korean troops, he is grabbed by Lieutenant Kim Jun-Seop and pulled behind a building to hide with him and his platoon.Ī U.S. He is ordered to run around and deliver supplies to soldiers in need, and help with any injured soldiers. Oh Jang-Beom, a volunteer militia student-soldier in a battle inside Yeongdeok, North Gyeongsang Province. 71: Into the Fire tells the story of these student-soldiers over the course of that fateful day. Their heroic defense of the area was actually a turning point in the Korean War.
These 71 teenagers, most of whom had never shot a gun before, managed to hold out against the advancing North Korean army for 11 hours. For 11 hours, they defended the local P'ohang girls' middle school, a strategic point for safeguarding the struggling Nakdong River perimeter, from an attack by overwhelming North Korean forces, specifically the feared 766th Unit. The film is based on a true story of a group of 71 undertrained and underarmed, outgunned student-soldiers of South Korea during the Korean War, who were mostly killed on August 11, 1950, during the Battle of P'ohang-dong. He brutally murders the surrendering prison commander just before he is captured and restrained by Chinese soldiers. Trying to rescue his brother, Jin-tae loses consciousness and wakes up to believe Jin-seok died in the fire. In the jail, Jin-tae's request to release his brother is refused and the security commander orders the prison to be set on fire when the enemy forces approach. During the struggle, Young-shin is shot dead and the brothers are arrested for trying to rescue her. Jin-tae gets his medal but Young-shin is captured by a South Korean militia, and the brothers attempt to stop them from executing her for treason when she is accused of having joined a communist party under the Northern occupation. coalition is eventually forced to retreat all the way back to Seoul when the Chinese intervene in the war on the North Korean side. His combat experiences quickly brutalize him into a cold-blood ruthless killer, which worries his horrified younger brother. His heroic feats during the urban battle of Pyongyang finally result in Jin-tae being nominated for the medal. Jin-tae willingly volunteers for many dangerous missions and is quickly promoted to the rank of Chungsa (Sergeant). Jin-tae is told by his commanding officer that if he can earn the highest award for a South Korean soldier, the Taeguk Cordon of the Order of Military Merit, his brother can be sent home. They then become a part of the 1st Infantry Division, fighting at the Pusan Perimeter and then advancing north. On June 25, 1950, North Korea invades South Korea. Jin-tae's fiancée Young-shin works with the Lee's noodle shop. Jin-tae also bought a silver pen for Jin-seok. Jin-tae Lee owns a shoeshine stand to pay for his younger brother Jin-seok's education. In 2003, while digging up remains at a Korean War battlefield to set up a memorial site, a South Korean army excavation team notifies an elderly man that they identified some remains as his own, after finding his name on the active list, not on KIA or MIA lists.ĭecades earlier, in June 1950, in the South Korean capital of Seoul, the Lee family go about their lives. In the process, Cha Tae-Sik must also face off against the police and his own mysterious past. The gangsters also drive off with So-Mi and her mother.Cha Tae-Sik must now go after the dangerous mobsters who stole So-Mi.
The gangsters leave the pawn shop, but before they leave they shoot one of their own men dead. He hears on a cellphone young So-Mi's screaming voice and then gives the gangsters the bag that was brought to him by So-Mi's mother. In the process they break into Cha Tae-Sik's pawn shop and holds him up. Cha Tae-Sik is unaware that in the bag is the heroin she stole from the nightclub.In a few days vicious mafia men come looking for So-Mi's mother knowing she stole the drugs. She pawns off to Cha Tae-Sik a bag with a camera, which he will hold until she pays him back. One day, So-Mi's mother Hyo-Jeong comes into the pawn shop. So-Mi lives near Cha Tae-Sik's pawn shop and often comes over when her junkie mother Hyo-Jeong has men over.
He associates little with those around him except a young girl named So-Mi (Kim Se-Ron). Hyo-Jeong (Kim Hyo-Seo), a dancer at the nightclub, walks off with the heroin.Cha Tae-Sik (Won Bin), known only as "ajusshi" in his neighborhood, runs a dilapidated pawn shop in a seedy part of town. While the nightclub employee changes out of his uniform he is tazered from behind. A nightclub employee takes the heroin into the locker room. Undercover police are also in the nightclub waiting to make their move. A heroin deal is set to occur at a nightclub.