It’s no surprise that some would compare 'Concrete Utopia' to the likes of Bong Joon-ho’s 'Snowpiercer' and Yeon Sang-ho’s 'Train to Busan' film series
, South Korea’s official selection for the Best International Feature Academy Award this year, audience members are thrust into the film’s provenance: how high-rise residential buildings and apartment towers, with its supposed convenience and affordability, have largely transformed and cemented the foundation of Korean life — a salient feature that has also become a status marker for many. The city at its most capitalist, one might venture to say.
The narrative, though, swiftly betrays this festive tone and, by extension, the film’s title, because what unfolds later on is the sheer opposite of utopia. The city, with all its former glories, gets buried in the ground in an-esque destruction, rendering once-promising homes beyond recognition, streets ravaged by earthquakes and explosions, and citizens still reeling from the ruin, searching for something safe and familiar, and awaiting rescue that is nowhere in sight.
Except for one apartment complex, the centerpiece onto which the film affixes its expansive interrogation of humanity and socioeconomic disparities in a time of survival, placing its characters in the tight spot of whether or not they should allow non-residents into the only livable building left standing.
After preventing a fire from escalating in the complex, Yeong-tak is then elected as the residents’ leader, quickly changing the power dynamics between him and the rest of the occupants. Next in command, and often tagging alongside him, is Min-seong, known to be a public servant.
The film is effective, precisely because it is able to harness the talent of Lee Byung-hun as a reliable force to wade through many gray areas that benefit its central preoccupation. In a harrowing moment, Yeong-tak stands before a gleeful crowd and sings his beloved song, the camera gently fixating on his face, just as he recalls, as if in a trance, the awful things he has done to be in his position.
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