The Korean desire for films about corruption in government and corporations is clear in Pandora, which had been the next hit catastrophe movie to come out of the Republic of Korea within the past year (Train to Busan, Tunnel). It also includes an earthquake and a nuclear power plant meltdown as natural disasters along with them being good measures for ticking off all of society’s current fears into one slightly overlong, often-shouting action drama that still does what it sets out to do despite itself.
Pandora played well last month domestically but should find a solid second life on U.S. Netflix this spring an ideal platform release for its niche, fervent audience. The lack of marquee names won’t help it abroad, where it may have some play at Asia-focused festivals and where the Korean brand still carries cache.
Director Park Jung-woo may be familiar to Korean cinephiles as co-writer of 2002 comedy Jail Breakers and underrated farce Attack the Gas Station; but more recently his outbreak thriller Deranged shares DNA with Pandora not to mention South Korea’s winter impeachment of a president for corruption alongside Japan’s 2011 Fukushima disaster and Gyeongju’s September earthquake.
Something of a Frankenstein in its references and construction, Pandora has Towering Inferno in it; zombie apocalypse drama; Armageddon, but few whistleblower thrillers (The China Syndrome); one engineer gets blown off by politicians he never really does approach the press. The story starts with a flashback: Four childhood friends ponder the purpose (Korea’s Coming Nuclear Boom) and mystery (nuclear plants are scary) behind South Korea’s first atomic power facility opening in their town. One mentions Greek myth Pandora’s box, etc.
Jae-hyuk (Kim Nam-gil), Hanbyul plant mechanic lives with his mother Mrs. Seok (Kim Young-ae, The Attorney), sister-in-law Jung-hye (Moon Jeong-hee, Park’s Deranged), and nephew Min-jae. He’s miserable in the depressed southern town, wants out bad but feels he must stay with his family; his father and brother died working at Hanbyul. Mrs. Seok hates that plant as much as he does. In Seoul, youthful idealistic President Kang (Kim Myung-min) reads a report by Hanbyul’s Chief Park (Jung Jin-young, Miracle in Cell No. 7), smuggled to him by his wife, about safety concerns and maintenance corners being cut at Hanbyul while venal Prime Minister (Lee Kyoung-young, Netflix’s Sense8) does his best to hide certain facts from president and protect corporate interests
By the 15-minute mark (when all of the rats start fleeing), this familiar set-up is already drawn out, largely by a great deal of shouting about the fact that no one is listening, those aren’t the orders etc., and so leaves us wondering what writer-director Park is going to do for the other two hours (answer: not quite fill them). Then come the ratty hints after which the earthquake hits and we shift briefly to Jae-hyuk’s family and girlfriend Yeon-ju (relative newcomer Kim Joo-hyeon), then back into Hanbyul, where they’re three minutes away from meltdown by minute 30. The rest of the story follows various characters as they try to evacuate, survive radiation poisoning and ultimately sacrifice themselves for the greater good (in town) or reassert political control and do what’s right (in Seoul); mass panic sets in when a deadly cloud of radiation starts sweeping across Korea, and it turns out there’s no way to stop the reactor’s coolant leak short of someone volunteering for a suicide mission.
A number of Korean industry heavyweights worked on Pandora, among them effects supervisor Lee Sung-kyu (Train to Busan, Taegukgi), who mixes purpose-built sets with plenty of CG; cinematographer Choi Young-hwan, a veteran of high-impact action (The Berlin File, The Thieves); etc.; but if anything Park’s technical polish gives him too much room for subtlety most overtly during an epilogue that notes Korea is building nuclear power stations while everyone else is shutting them down. Oddly enough, though, Pandora attacks only tech itself; it gently admonishes a corporate structure that values profit over safety.
But it’s humanity that takes center stage here; Park puts it on thick. Unfortunately like so many action/adventure/standard thrillers these days he overstays his welcome; Pandora is simply too long. After the irradiated mechanics make the selfless decision to go back inside and repair the station, Jae-hyuk’s farewell to family drags out past numbing, eventually losing any pathos it created; which is too bad, because Kim’s quiet moments are most true after two hours of hollering (as opposed to acting). He admits he’s scared and doesn’t want to die unusual for most resigned, manly heroes and his teary good-bye is a lovely counterpoint to the eerily barren streets and the president’s stoic internal conflict.
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