Mostmodern disastermovies are rather cheesy — big , special effects spectaclesthat are an excuse to showcase lot ofdestruction and action . Concrete Utopia , a South Korean disaster picture show , has some of that , but really focuses more on what comes in the immediate consequence . First , the film grab your attention with a monolithic earthquake leveling Seoul . Everything is destroyed as far as the eye can see … except for one single apartment construction right in the middle .
It ’s a premise that could , at that point , go any identification number of ways . It could be The Raid . It could be Assault on Precent 13 . It could be Independence Day . but filmmaker Um Tae - hwa decide to go totally real with it . surely , there ’s military action and violence along the room , but the chief focus is the human decisions made by the residents of this edifice . Do they let more people in ? Who deserves to be there ? And all along the way , you ca n’t help but ponder what you would do in this office .
The main characters , though there are many , are Min - seong ( Park Seo - joon ) and Myeong - hwa ( Park Bo - young ) , a hubby and married woman who , almost without warning , discover themselves in prominent berth in the hierarchy of the building . He runs security , she help with health , and all of it is verify by Yeong - tak ( Lee Byung - hun ) , a headstrong adult male who make it under less than clean-cut circumstances .
The residents of Concrete Utopia.Image: Fantastic Fest
At first occupier of the building permit in other survivors , trying to be as accept as possible . However , as resources dwindle , those opinion rapidly vary and instead , a more militaristic dominion is follow . thing seem fine for a while until the violence starts . And the fabrication . And in each and every scene , you are n’t quite indisputable what each character is fail to do .
It ’s all riveting though , especially as we see the characters start to change and mysteries get clear . There ’s also fantastic world - building occupy place in the story , as the occupant go on supply tally and see how everyone else in Seoul is know .
What keep occurring to me in Concrete Utopia is that we never see the government activity . We never see any soldier . There are no clear - cut Italian sandwich or villains . It ’s just completely slice of life and matter of fact about this unimaginable - to - fathom , withering situation . sure as shooting there are people out in this world trying to cipher out the big ikon stuff but Concrete Utopia is all about the smaller picture . It challenges us , not anyone else .
The effect is a film that ’s vivid and potent , but without ever losing its propellent entertainment time value . We see our own morality as the fictional character shatter or solidify theirs , and in the end , you just desire to spend more time in this world . Which is kind of wild . In disaster moving picture , ordinarily you just want to see everyone get back to normal . In Concrete Utopia , you just need to watch over how it all gets figured out .
Concrete Utopia played Fantastic Fest 2023 this hebdomad and is the South Korean launching for Best International Feature for the upcoming Academy Awards . It ’ll be expel in the U.S. later this pin .
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