Film Review: "#Alive" ("#살아있다") (2020).

"You Must Survive" in #Alive (#살아있다). This South Korean zombie film directed by Cho Il-hyung, adapted by Cho and Matt Naylor, and based on the 2019 American horror film of the same time written by Naylor. As a grisly virus rampages a city, a lone man stays locked inside his apartment, digitally cut off from seeking help and desperate to find a way out.

By early October 2019, Yoo Ah-in, Park Shin-hye, Lee Hyun-wook, Oh Hye-won, Jin So-yeon and Yoo Yeon were cast. Yoo said that he worked hard to make a puffy body Joon-woo by consuming salty food. Also, It is the first time for Yoo to appear with the bleached hair in his films. He at first wore a black wig to distinguish because he shot as soon as finished filming Voice of Silence (2020). But when he took off the wig for a brief moment at the shooing set, the production head saw Yoo's bleached hair and said his short hair was better. After the field staff voted on the spot, Joon-woo's hairstyle was decided. Later, at the request of the audience, Yoo released a photo of him wearing the wig on his Instagram account. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in early December. Filming took place at Studio Cube in Dajeon, South Korea. In August 2020, Netflix acquired the international distribution rights to the film and set the film for a September 8, 2020 release date.

The film stars Yoo Ah-in, Park, Lee, Oh, Jin and Yoo Yeon. Yoo Ah-in comes to realize that selfish short-sighted attention is inherently inhuman. Metaphorically, it's what separates us from the zombies. A film that has a protagonist with a conventional dramatic arc, but everything that surrounds this predictable characterization is pure imaginative fire, served with devilish dominion of the filmic space.

Although it's predominantly horror, many of the concepts wisely double as opportunities to comment on the government's inability to handle widespread predicaments. The film doesn't blaze any new trails, but it transcends the tricks and tropes of a genre that so often feels it has nothing more to offer. During the harrowing ordeal, you're hunkered down with a likable group of survivors who jump resourcefully from one trap to the next, with the real monsters being the executive types. The bad stuff can be ignored and the good stuff is so, so good. The terror is nuanced and visceral, a gut reaction to the scale and speed of the attacks on screen. The amount of energy that director Cho Il-hyung is able to infuse into the film is a welcome change from the stop and go nature of recent entries in the genre. With a combination of incredible casting, rapid pacing and great scripting, it is the best South Korean zombie film you'll ever see. Overpopulation may have diluted the effects of zombies, but as long as filmmakers with the prowess of Sang-ho can make entertaining movies, zombies don't have to be so damn boring.

Simon says #Alive (#살아있다) receives:

Also, see my review for A Violent Prosecutor (검사외전).