Flu (Korean 2013) by Sung-su Kim

[cranefly]

This is the movie all Americans must see. Then we’d get serious about Ebola and nuke Texas and the East Coast pronto. It’s a very good movie, with well-developed, likeable characters, great dialog, masterful action sequences, and a truly chilling atmosphere as a deadly flu virus spreads like wildfire through a suburb of Seoul.

The only weakness comes in the depiction of the South Korean president and his interactions with his staff and a menacing US general bent on hard tactics. But when it comes to the city streets and the panicking civilians, it works extremely well; and the story-line is so much smarter than anything coming out of Hollywood -- a characteristic of South Korean cinema that I've long appreciated.

There are several standout actors. Jang Hyuk as a firefighter and Soo-Ae as a doctor provide the love interest. But 6-year-old Park Min-Ha, who plays the doctor’s daughter, is the true standout, and steals every scene she’s in. Nothing makes me moist-eyed these days, and then this fucking movie comes along. Anyway, I was a little concerned about some of the intense scenes the girl was put in, so I looked her up on the web; and now I’m even more concerned. Her father sounds like a royal asshole ever promoting her in disturbingly grownup ways. He even held a mock wedding for her with some other boy, just for publicity’s sake, as well as some other creepy stuff. This has created a backlash, with lots of online hate messages directed at her in Korea. As the more level-headed grownups have pointed out, "Min Ha shouldn't be the one getting all the hate, it should be her father Park Chan Min." Who knows how she’ll turn out. What I do know is that she is truly outstanding in this movie.

Well worth a couple hours of your time, to my mind.

[Drunk Monk]

Interesting to watch this now that we've lived through a couple of pandemic years. This wasn't predictive in retrospect, although it does have some moments, and some really cool clear masks with metal filters. 

cf is spot on with all his comments made 8 years ago above. I'll add this film also stars Don Lee (Ma Dong-seok) and Yoo Hai-jin, two actors mentioned in earlier reviews this week in my action K-flix binge. Both are good here again and are emerging as my fav K-actors. 

The film doesn't quite hold up now because our pandemic was more of a slow burn whilst this is a sudden apocalyptic catastrophe. The culprit is a bird flu variant that incubates almost instantly causing a cough and temp, followed soon after by lesions and bloody vomiting, and then death. The streets quickly fill with bodies. There's a militant quarantine, replete with unsympathetic soldiers who casually shoot innocent civilians when ordered to do so and cover up a massive scandalous operation the fills a stadium. And of course, it all comes down to one person with the antibodies. If only defeating a virus was that simple.

The asshole US general has more of an English accent which totally spoils his effect/affect. The main storyline with the girl dominates several sub-story arcs which poke their heads out every now and then to remind us that their part of it, and then are quickly disregarded with the main arc recommences. 

I wouldn't've datagorized this as an action flick - it's more of a disaster genre story - but it pops up when Korean Action Movies are searched on Prime, so now i'm debating whether to include it or not. I have 17 movies for 15 slots.

Nothing makes me moist-eyed these days, and then this fucking movie comes along. 

I know exactly which scene you're talking about. I could see it coming a mile away and it was milked for all it was worth - way overdone in that sappy sentimental K-way - but I feel ya. It gave me the feels too, even though I knew i was being manipulated to get there for the bulk of the film. 

I'm on the fence about D00M recommending this. On one hand, it's interesting to watch a pandemic tale that came out years prior to the pandemic. On the other hand, we live in a pandemic, so why would you want to watch a movie about it?