The Front Line

The Front Line (; also known as Battle of Highlands) is a 2011 South Korean war film directed by Jang Hoon, set during the 1953 ceasefire of the Korean War. This is the third film by director Jang Hoon, after completing Secret Reunion and Rough Cut. It won four Grand Bell Awards, including Best Film. It was selected as South Korea's submission to the 84th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, but did not make the final shortlist. Plot Early in the Korean War in 1950, as the North is rolling through South Korea, South Korean army privates Kang Eun-pyo (Shin Ha-kyun) and Kim Soo-hyeok (Go Soo) are captured in a battle and brought to Korean People's Army captain Jung-yoon. Jung-yoon declares to the prisoners that the war will be over in a week and that he knows exactly why they are fighting the war, before releasing the prisoners, so that they can help reconstruct the nation after the war. Three years later, in 1953, the war has not ended. Despite ceasefire negotiations, the fighting continues around the hills on the 38th Parallel, as each side fights to determine the future dividing line between North and South. The hills, used as bargaining chips in the negotiations, change hands constantly and so quickly that the ceasefire negotiators don't always know who controls them, yet they are coveted by both sides. Amidst the fighting, a South Korean officer commanding 'Alligator' Company, fighting at the Aerok Hills, is found dead, killed by a Southern bullet. The now-First Lieutenant Eun-Pyo of the South Korean Army's Counterintelligence Corps (the precursor to South Korea's current Defense Security Command) is sent to investigate the murder and find an apparent mole there who had been mailing letters from Northern troops to into the South.