Han Ki-ju (Ahn Sung-ki), a Vietnam War veteran, serializes a war novel in a news magazine by drawing on his memories from that time. Crippled by the aftereffects of the war, his daily life has fallen apart, and his ex-wife plans to leave for the United States with their child. One day, he receives a phone call from Byeon Jin-soo (Lee Kyung-young), a fellow veteran. Jin-soo babbles incoherently saying he has read the novel, and a few days later, a handgun is delivered to Ki-ju’s house. Adapted from Ahn Jung-hyo’s novel of the same name, White Badge was a rare anti-war film in Korean cinema at the time, also suggesting that Korea could have been a perpetrator in the conflict. Having actually majored in Vietnamese in college, Ahn Sung-ki subtly reveals the unstable psyche of a Vietnam veteran beneath a deadpan face. Contrasted with Jin-soo, who suffers from even more severe trauma, few actors could match Ahn’s ability to express the solitude and despair of a man bearing the heavy weight of shared agony. (KIM Song-hee)