Internment camps are a nightmare. In The Battleship Island, the wartime hellscape is a prison island doubling as a mining facility at which prisoners are forced to dig for coal under inhumane conditions. The best way to escape such a dire fate is to know how to play a musical instrument: So clarinetist band-leader Lee Gang-ok (Hwang Jung-min) and his prepubescent, singing-dancing daughter So-hee (Kim Su-an) have a glimmer of hope, as they entertain the enemy with a small jazz band.
Playing pop songs for your enslavers may sound like a form of torture but working underground and breathing coal dust doesn't sound any better. And there are prepubescent kids — with pickaxes and chizels — in the subterranean realm as well. Thug-turned-good-guy Choi Chil-sung (So Ji-seob) may have fought his way into a line boss job for the betterment of his countrymen but there's only so much he can do. And who needs his help more? Elder Yoon Kyung-ho (Lee Kyung-young) or comfort woman Mallyon (Lee Jung-hyun)?
Then again, maybe since this is a movie, all of these stories are going to come together for a great escape. So how's that going to happen when you're stuck on an island with no mainland in swimming distance? Teletype machines, copied keys, pornographic distractions, traded cigarettes, and sheer fortitude, that's how! Considering how often it rains and how often there are explosions on this prison-island, it's going to be tough even if things go smoothly. Then again, survival might be enough.
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