Uprising (2024) Review

Explosive
4

Summary

Uprising is one of the better Netflix movies and is another win for South Korean cinema. It has memorable characters, genuine emotion and enough bloodshed to keep you engaged for the 2 hour runtime.

Plot: Set in the Joseon era during a tumultuous time in the aftermath of war, take a journey through the lives of two childhood friends-turned-adversaries: Cheon Yeong, a slave with remarkable martial prowess, and Jong Ryeo, Cheon Yeong’s master and scion of Joseon’s most influential military family.

Review: *Some spoilers ensue*

I’ve been meaning to watch the South Korean action epic Uprising for some time, but finally got around to it last night and it didn’t disappoint. I’d heard good things about it, and it not only delivers on the action front, but also on the emotional stakes.

Jong Ryeo (Park Jeong-min) and Cheon Yeong (Gang Dong-won) are from different social classes with Jong being a young Master, but Cheon being a slave and the pair become friends.  This was unacceptable during that time and the two eventually grow apart as Cheon spends most of his time trying to escape to freedom.

Years pass and the slaves rise up and burn the palace to the ground and Jong Ryeo’s wife dies in the struggle. Jong blames Cheon for this and the two go from friends to enemies.

There are a lot of machinations and betrayals throughout; admittedly I did get a little confused at times as to who was doing what, but it all makes sense as it goes on. I feel like I’ve spoiled a lot but not really as there are many different characters with their own motivations. I thought the King was especially hateful, and arrogant; he deserved a worse fate…

Uprising takes about 20-25 minutes before we get an action scene, but after that it rarely goes more than a few minutes without a swordfight, battle or limb being chopped off. It’s hyper violent, but not in the way that The Shadows Strays is.

This is beautifully shot and the fights look awesome, especially a climactic showdown on a foggy beach; I cared about Cheon and Jong, but knew that their friendship was ultimately doomed.

One of my favourite aspects of Uprising was the music score which was unexpectedly amazing; it had heroic rock music which shouldn’t work in this kind of tale, but it did and really elevated the fight scenes.

Overall, Uprising was surprisingly moving making us actually care about the characters, but it’s also packed with enough bloodshed to keep us action junkies happy. It’s one of Netflix’s better recent efforts and worth a watch.