Review - Concrete Utopia
Directed by: Um Tae-hwa
Written by: Lee Shin-ji, Um Tae-hwa
Starring: Lee Byung-hun, Park Seo-Jung, Park Bo-young
Running Time: 129 minutes
Rating: 4/5
Shouldn’t we find a way to all live together?
There is no paradise in this Utopia. Rather, a dystopian parable that is relentless in its bleak absolutes and punishing expose of human nature. In Um Tae-hwa’s post apocalyptic disaster thriller, Concrete Utopia, the very foundation of humanity and society crumbles into the withered rubble jungle of death, hopelessness and tragedy.
The film opens with a magnificent montage that depicts Seoul’s urban growth and society’s response to house its growing population. With archival footage and recreated elements, Concrete Utopia focuses on the aspect of home and what it means to its people and what that safety represents in a community’s identity, idealism and soul. Dozens of sky-high apartment buildings litter the sprawling landscape of Seoul; high rises that house hundreds and thousands from their very first breaths to their last. Every room, every apartment, every home, tells a story that is honest and authentic in its representation of South Korean life. When an explosive earthquake shatters the city; every single apartment building, roads and semblance of human life sinks into the deep crevice of the earth - leaving one lone apartment building standing in the midst of the disaster.
The Hwang Gung Apartments remain standing. The only beacon of humanity left in a cold, dark, desolate concrete wasteland. It is now up to the survivors to learn to live together or die alone.
Concrete Utopia is a fable of class warfare, cultural and societal hierarchy and the slow, gradual descent from decency and human justice to unspeakable madness; a world where rules are redefined, reinterpreted and refurbished under crisis law - where such extreme tragedies only call for the most extreme and unforgiving measures. Told through the eyes of an ensemble cast, the handful of apartment survivors all forge together to gather resources, defend their own and seek to rebuild a utopia in their broken world. The apartment complex is the last refuge in the desolate, barren, concrete desert - it is the only beacon of hope and semblance of life in the midst of the death outside their doorstep. Hunters, violent outlaws and the unbearing cold all creep outside the perimeter of the complex; a labyrinth, an entrapping enclosure keeping their residents in, tucked away from the dangers (or saviors) of the world outside.
The film’s strength lies in its ability to capture many facets of a crumbling society; it almost feels like a modern adaption of real-time-strategy games - the community bands together to scavenge for resources, barter with their residents and ultimately dictate and explicate challenging decisions that would ripple across the very essence of the community. Do you take in survivors? Or do you expel all non-residents out of the complex? Do you put children and elderly to work to scavenge food and water? What do you do if there is a crime or a family challenges the rules of the newly formed community? Where is the line that we cross when we lose our humanity? Do we eat our dead? Do we kill our trespassers? How does our only hope - the apartment complex - become our saviour and paradise in such a bleak and broken world?
The film is stunning in its production design and cinematography; from its thrilling earthquake sequences to its quieter moments around the apartment complex - the film is sprawling, epic and immersive in its post-apocalyptic world - it feels barren, cold and hopeless. Every moment of light or a glimpse of a fire is a faint smile in the heart of darkness, it is encapsulating and engrossing in its ability to transport the audience into a world struck by disaster. Lee Byung-Hun’s performance as the complex’s delegate is stunning; a man brought forward by the community to lead them through vicious and harrowing times. There are moments of quiet intensity, his eyes and facial expressions brimming with a burning anguish, a sleeper agent of chaos and remarkable rage.
Concrete Utopia is, even in its absolute dark nature, is a thrilling disaster saga that will challenge your notions of humanity’s ethical justice. Its wonderous script weaves many twists and turns throughout the final two acts with such precision, ease and masterful control. The film’s relentless nature builds upon layers of tension towards a ground-shaking, extraordinarily challenging finale. Concrete Utopia does not stray away from familiar archetypes of the disaster and apocalyptic narratives, but it tackles such thematic nuances with a revitalized energy that thrills, shocks and keeps teetering on the edge of safety. This is definitely not the utopian promise you were seeking, but an entertaining foray of human nature, morality and the salvation for the greater good.
