01
The 2020 Korean movie zombie masterpiece that refreshes the lower limit
Three years ago, "Train to Busan" had a double harvest at the box office, allowing the audience to see the maturity of the Korean film industry. For the localization of imported disaster types, the closed space of "train" was used to deal with the most vividly, in which the connection between the characters , The presentation of the social relationship organization linked by blood is very able to arouse the deep emotional resonance of the audience.
Of course, many viewers are also making fun of some of the unreasonable aspects of the characters, such as how Kong Yoo, as a white-collar office worker, seems to be possessed by special forces when he fights zombies, and the settings and sources of the zombies are not handled enough. Specific and unconvincing, etc. Although there are some regrets, the success of "Train to Busan" can be regarded as the beginning of the era of Korean films. Last year alone included the zombie-themed comedy "Wonderful Family" and the popular Korean drama "Kingdom" produced by Netflix.
With the epidemic raging around the world this year, zombie films with infection as the core idea have once again become popular, but the two zombie-themed films launched by South Korean producers with confidence are showing a trend of hitting the streets.
Although "Train to Busan 2: Peninsula" is blessed with the halo of the previous work and has repeatedly hit record highs at the box office in East Asia, the reputation of the film itself is in a mess, almost becoming the protagonist of "prop man", and the arc of the character cannot be seen at all. , the two intertwined story lines have almost no intersection with each other, and the so-called presentation of the theme of sentient beings in the apocalypse is only superficial.
For the most important spectacle of the disaster genre, this film also presents a rather "cheap" texture, giving people a sense of rush and shoddy production, which really has to be said to be disappointing.
And the "Alive" we are going to discuss today was actually quite anticipated by the author before it was released. On the one hand, it is because the film's actor Liu Yaren, as one of the hottest actors in Korea at the moment, is one of the hottest actors in Korea, whether it is the commercial film "Veteran" ” or the artwork “Burning”, he can control it with ease, and he uses convincing acting skills to give people a strong impression, so the author is looking forward to what Yaren will contribute in such a disaster film that is almost a one-man show. wonderful performance.
On the other hand is the core concept of the film, that is, a closed space more extreme than the train in "Train to Busan", that is, one's own home. Although the train is an enclosed space, it can at least move, but the home is fixed and cannot take the protagonist anywhere. If there is no material, water and electricity in a disaster, it will be difficult for people to survive. This kind of disaster film is completely confined to an enclosed space. How it will be presented, just thinking about it is exciting.
But as the old saying goes, the higher the expectation, the greater the disappointment. Although many friends who have read it before watching it have discouraged me from having unnecessary fantasies, I just don't give up. Facts have proved that I should listen to the lessons of the past. I thought that "Train to Busan 2: Peninsula" has refreshed my aesthetic lower limit, but I didn't expect "Alive" to be even more disappointing.
02
no character
As soon as Junyu played by Yaren appeared, he was a nerdy otaku. Apart from telling him to call his mother when he woke up, and to sit down and eat chicken after washing up, there was hardly any shaping of this role, and the audience was just like Junyu. Without a trace of defense, he was dragged into the world of zombie siege. In genre films, why the protagonist goes on the road or makes changes is crucial, but the director seems to have never thought about what character arc Aren's character needs in this film. After the siege, Junyu hardly had any personal qualities except being a lucky survivor.
The relationship between Junyu and family members is also, except for the photos displayed in the house and a hallucination of Junyu, nothing is presented, which makes the clues of the family a dispensable subplot, not like in "Train to Busan". The reason why the father-daughter relationship between Gong Yoo and his daughter is touching is that the director did not rush to present the spectacle of disaster at the beginning, but first presented what the characters lacked and what the father and daughter needed to solve in the journey. , these are very important.
One of my favorite zombie movies is "Shaun of Zombies" directed by Edgar Wright. It is also a zombie siege, but the movie first presents the audience with the mid-life crisis of an ordinary person. His career, friendship and love were all presented in a very layered manner before the invasion of the zombie army, which made the audience feel more empathetic and immersed in the character. If he just pushed a person into danger, then His life and death have nothing to do with the audience.
Junyu has been hiding at home itself is a very big suspense, that is, whether he can escape the danger successfully, but the audience can't identify with this role at all, so there is not much sympathy for his behavior. Park Shin-hye, who only appeared in about half of the film, although it is implied in the film that she actually thought about suicide, her portrayal of this character is a standard "strong woman", especially after she said that she is afraid of heights, she can still resolutely Resolutely jumped down from the top to the zombie group, without the slightest hesitation.
Of course, it can be explained that the survival instinct of people in desperation has been rejuvenated, but the character hardly appeared in the first half of the film, and after the appearance, she only showed her life in fragments, without showing the characteristics of the character itself. .
The director tried to create an image of a Valkyrie, but the result was counterproductive. When the audience saw Park Shin-hye, she already had a very high survivability. Although there will be times when she is attacked, she can always make a quick decision to save the day.
There is almost no chemical reaction between the hero and heroine, and I can't see what has changed after they met each other. What makes the author particularly puzzled is why the film takes so much space to show the hero eating noodles, but he is unwilling to be there. In the first 30 minutes, let both protagonists appear and face danger together. It is understandable that instant noodles are a must-have staple food for Korean families, but there is really no need to present them as important details in the film. Now there is always a feeling of instant noodle advertisements dressed in zombie films.
03
no plot
In the first 40 minutes, the director was constantly filming the scene of a human being bitten by a zombie from Junyu's subjective perspective. Of course, this can be understood as a constant pressure on Junyu to force him to escape from the house in the end. But the problem is that these bitten ensembles have almost nothing to do with the protagonist, so these plots have become useless plots. Think about "World War Z", which is also the fall of the city. The first thing the protagonist's family does when they escape from the car is to get supplies. Although this film is very conceptually done, the room that cannot be escaped is in East Asian culture. The idea of relocation must also play a role.
But the problem is that such an extreme environment naturally needs to be matched with extremely high screenwriting skills to save the protagonist from danger. But in this film, Junyu jumped down the stairs so easily. Junyu, who saved Park Shin Hye, was able to jump off the building lightly when he was separated from the eighth floor, and then Zombies, whose fighting power doubled, had already been so strong. Why don't you look for something to eat and drink in the residential building?
In fact, the film shows the protagonist sneaking into the neighbor's house to find supplies, but this is obviously a plot point that can be deeply digged. Every family structure is different, and each invasion can make a difference and level, but unfortunately, with the opposite building With the appearance of Park Shin-hye, the two began to have a very ambiguous relationship with the walkie-talkie, and all the previous survival problems seemed to be no longer a problem. The two were eating ramen noodles and chatting. After the entire film was halfway through, it should have entered the main story and accelerated the pace.
As a result, the rhythm of the second half of the film became more and more loose, and there was even a man who pretended to be kind to help the protagonist. In fact, it was the man's wife who turned into a zombie and needed to feed her human flesh. When I saw this plot, I found that the film was coming to an end, which is equivalent to saying that this middle-aged man who was killed halfway became the arrogant villain of the whole film, but this man never appeared in the first three-quarters of the plot. I really don't understand the director's intention to deal with this. This plot can be treated as one of the weirdos Junyu escaped and met in the residential building in the first half of the film. Forcing the story to end here is really abrupt. .
04
no subject
Zombies are often used to highlight a certain theme. For example, "World War Z" is about family affection, and "Shaun of Zombies" is about mid-life crisis. In this film, it is obvious that the director did not think clearly what the story is about. Whether it is how powerful a person's desire for survival can evoke, or whether it is the alienation of individuals in the apocalypse, these are actually involved, but they are not developed.
Including the so-called virus raging, the whole city is paralyzed, and the audience can't feel this at all. Under the strong setting, the director did not try to make his worldview complete, but made the story more and more outrageous and full of loopholes. . Until the end of the film, the audience did not know where the virus came from, how the mercenaries found the protagonist, and what the zombie setting was.
From this point of view, this film is not even as good as last year's "Extreme Escape", which is also a disaster theme, and that work is slightly better than this film in terms of characterization and theme presentation. The English title of the film "exit" has both the meaning of escape and the protagonist's escape from the dilemma of his current life. In the constant running, he regained courage and made up for the trauma of the past. These are a type of What needs to be done while presenting the spectacle does not need to be very profound, but at least it must be able to achieve some kind of universal theme expression, not just empty and let the audience watch two soulless characters play tricks.
05
end
The development of Korean films from genres to the development of the entire film production system is obvious to all, but at the same time of development, we must beware of some mistakes that Hollywood has made, such as blindly following popular genres and over-exploitation of IP, etc. , look at the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series is very illustrative.
In fact, the end of the film itself, has already explained the reason why the film hit the street. Park Shin Hye was suspected of being bitten and wanted Jun Yu to kill her, but Jun Yu found out that there was a plane to rescue them, and no one would care about it anymore. This is the same as the screenwriter of the film. If one thing is not clear, he is eager to talk about another thing. A plot bug appears, but he runs and digs another hole. I really hope that there will be fewer such works in the future, otherwise, I am really worried about the future development of the Korean film business type.
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