Concrete Utopia / 콘크리트 유토피아 - Movie Review

The Movie: Concrete Utopia / 콘크리트 유토피아

The Director: Um Tae-hwa

The Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Park Seo-joon, Park Bo-young, Kim Sun-young, Park Ji-hu

The Story: Survivors from a massive earthquake struggle for a new life in Seoul.

The Review:

See, now this is the type of filmmaking I would love for Hollywood to explore with it's big budgets and star studded casts although financial concerns and algorithms always seem to outweigh the bravery that might take. This is not a cookie cutter feel good story nor is it a predictable action movie or dramatic feature that you'd probably forget not long after leaving the theater, or whatever type of device you chose to watch it on. Director Um Tae-hwa has created a piece of art that is unique, striking, and memorable in ways that are as entertaining as they are thought provoking.

The thought of a massive earthquake devastating a major city to the point where only one building has survived relatively intact is just asking for a visual feast of a film, which we do get some of, although the filmmakers really focus on the the human ramifications of society literally crumbling and leaving survival as priority number one for those left with some semblance of a life to salvage. The dynamics that play out between the characters in the film is very thought provoking because they are faced with a scenario that we hope we never have to deal with in reality.

What plays out on screen is kind of a chess match between the residents of the apartment building and the people left outside as well as all of the infighting that would of course play out during such desperate times within the community itself. Lee Byung-hun gets to really sink his teeth into the meatiest role on the roster as a man who finds himself as a leader while also hiding some very interesting secrets that could see his new standing come crumbling down like the buildings around him.

Lee is probably one of those actors who you recognize because he's so good but you can't place what you've seen him in. The actor has played in so many different types of movies from a couple of the G.I. Joe films as the iconic Storm Shadow character to several episodes of the massively popular Squid Game Netflix series. The guy's pretty much done everything and played every type of role and it was great to see him deliver such a great performance in this movie. There are a few twists and turns in the story and he's right in the center of all of it and I'm sure he had a lot of fun bringing it all to life.

Park Seo-joon, one of South Korea's biggest stars, is also in the movie alongside Park Bo-young who play a young husband and wife who get caught up in the emerging politics of the story and are forced to make some tough decisions of their own. It was very interesting to see both age and gender differences play a factor in the story with prejudices and stereotypes unearthing themselves from all of the rubble and destruction. I think the one thing where the story falls a bit short is that, even though the movie has a few emotionally wrenching moments, I wasn't as impacted overall as I was hoping to be.

Korean cinema, no matter the genre, has often left me all up in my emotions by the end of the story but this one didn't really have that same impact. Other than that though, this is a high stakes production with a lot of attention to detail when it comes to the visuals, the intrigue, the social and political commentary, and everything else that made the movie what it is. Concrete Utopia will go down as one of the better movies I have watched this year and I wouldn't be surprised if it gets some recognition when it comes to all the year end awards stuff.