LakshmiAnnounced as the official Oscar entry from Korea, this dystopian disaster movie is anything but a disaster at the box office.
With a worldwide release scheduled in December, this film has already minted about $ 29M after its limited release in South Korea, Hong Kong and Vietnam. It premiered internationally in the Gala Presentations section of the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
Most of us have survived earthquakes. Some of us have dealt with the repercussions. But South Korean director, Um Tae-hwa, took this concept to a whole new level, while making this movie, portraying the challenges faced by people who somehow manage to survive a catastrophic earthquake.
A still from Concrete Utopia. Photo: TIFF
The movie commences with a montage of apartment buildings in Seoul. An earthquake erupts, reducing everything to rubbles, save for a single apartment. Naturally, human instinct leads survivors inside the complex to help refugees seeking assistance. However, the lack of resources in the building affects the inhabitants, who meet and decide to refrain from allowing any outsiders to enter the apartment. Only homeowners would be permitted to remain.
The mere logic of this inhumane action was that if outsiders were let in and consumed all the limited resources, at some point, it would backfire and the legal residents would be ousted from their own homes.
Park Seo-joon and Park Bo-young in character. Photo: Lotte Entertainment
Proving himself to possess the qualities of a leader, while snuffing out a fire to protect the building, the enigmatic Kim Yeong-Tak (Lee Byung-hun) is unanimously selected as the de facto ruler of the apartment. Min-Seong (Park Seo-joon) and Myeong-hwa(Park Bo-young) are a couple with altruistic tendencies who own a unit in the apartment; she is a nurse, hell-bent on helping refugees secretly; he is a civil servant, trying to survive. But everything changes when Hye-won (Park Ji-hu), a high school student enters the scene and attempts to reveal the true identity of Yeong-Tak. Forming a kind of cult-like atmosphere, the residents live together, fuelling unprecedented chaos.
The movie is a good watch the first time, as is any disaster movie. The actors are brilliant, especially the incredible Lee Byung-hun, whose work I have admired for many years! My personal favourite scene of his was when he began singing Yoon So-Il’s 1998 song “Apartment”, while flashbacks of his dynamic character’s story showed on the screen. Interestingly, he later revealed during a press conference that was his favourite sequence during filming too. Korean heartthrob, Park Seo-joon as the modest, intelligent government worker and Park Bo-young as the naïve-yet-courageous nurse, were excellent in their roles. Newcomer Park Ji-hu was promising. The familiar actress Kim Sun-young is also featured in the movie as the president of the women’s association of the apartment.
Lee in a still from the film. Photo: BH Entertainment
The best thing about the movie is Lee’s terrific acting. Verdict: Korean films are the real deal when it comes to creating this kind of ‘concrete’ suspense.
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| Release Date: 2023-08-09 (South Korea) 2023-09-10 (TIFF) | Distributor(s): Lotte Entertainment, Climax Studio, BH Entertainment | ||||
| Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Park Seo-joon, Park Bo-young, Park Ji-hu | Producers: Byun Seung-min | ||||
| Director: Um Tae-hwa | Screenplay: Um Tae-hwa, Lee Shin-ji | ||||
| Runtime: 129 Minutes | Genres: Disaster, thriller, action |
Lakshmi
