What is human nature? How is it affected by the systems placed on it and what would happen if those fell away? If you’re looking for answers to those questions, make sure to get to a theater near you when Concrete Utopia opens. An aftermath of a disaster movie, this film plants us in Korea after a massive earthquake destroys nearly everything save for one apartment complex and how the residents of said complex try and reform society as it has cratered around them.
Concrete Utopia is less interested in heroics than it is the human condition. By dropping us right in the aftermath of this massive earthquake, we can discover characters in motion and feel as if we’re one of the residents. The movie at one point even give us a meta commercial for their new home. It’s a particularly smart move to lull us into a new sense of security before continuing to tighten the screw. This invitation into their lives sets the stage for us to be witness to expertly drawn characters who can operate in the shades between heroic and evil.
Our main viewpoint through the film is through the eyes of three characters: Min-seong (Park Seo-jun), Myeong-hwa (Park Bo-young), and Yeong-tak (Lee Kyung-hun). Park Seo-jun and Park Bo-young get the challenge of playing a husband and wife whose idyllic life is interrupted by the shifting morals and jobs of the complex. Both actors do well to work within some stereotypes of their characters to shade them and ground us in the story. It’s great to have an actor of the caliber of Lee Byun-yun in this film because not only is he good enough to chart his character’s full progression from meek to ferocious, but his mere presence allows the movie to emerge in a way that it wouldn’t with someone of lesser caliber.
The set pieces in this film are unreal, with the production design making use of every nook and cranny of their locations. From the deteriorating complex to the rubble of buildings, director Um Tae-hwa has an eye for ensuring the senses with his visual style. He’s equally adept at making us feel the never ending despair and the claustrophic feel. The world outside might have crumbled to bits, but he shows us that it only takes the smallest push for humanity to also crumble down.