#Alive

September 8, 2020
Action/Horror/Drama
Not Rated
South Korea
Director: Il Cho

“Survival can be summed up in three words: never give up.” – Bear Grylls

Oh Jun-wu (Yoo Ah-In) is a fairly popular online gamer who quickly finds himself in the middle of a zombie-like apocalypse. His family goes out and he finds a note from his mother (So Hee-Jung) to get groceries. Being a typical teenage boy, he doesn’t, and he quickly finds himself regretting that decision.

On the news talks about an infection spreading like wildfire across the country, and those infected are exhibiting violent and cannibalistic traits, which Jun-wu sees first hand when a girl attacks her mother. And, like with any zombie movie, being bitten or scratched spreads the infection. Jun-wu bunkers down in his apartment, doing his best to ration his food and water, and it takes less than a month for him to run out.

Wi-fi and cell phone signals are down, but he uses his drone to fly his phone toward the top of his complex to get a better signal. He finds he has a voice message, so he listens to it. It’s his mother instructing him to stay inside and that she and the rest of the family are safe in Jun-wu’s father’s office. But then Jun-wu hears screaming and calling for help, and that’s when the voicemail stops.

Assuming his family is dead, Jun-wu sets up a makeshift noose to hang himself, but is stopped when he sees a laser pointer shining through his window. This is when he first meets Kim Yu-bin (Park Shin-hye). The knowledge of someone else alive fuels Jun-wu’s desire for survival and the two help each other, either by sending food back and forth or just lifting each other’s spirits with simple conversation.

However, they realize that they’re not going to live long if they stay where they are, so they make an escape to the eighth floor, where Yu-bin swears it’s clear. She’s wrong, but they’re saved by another survivor (Jeon Bae-su). He gives them food and water, but he’s not as nice as he appears to be. They soon find out they’ve been drugged and the survivor drags Yu-bin to another room where his wife (Lee Chae-kyeong) has been infected and he intends to use Yu-bin and Jun-wu as food for her.

While Yu-bin is fighting the woman off, Jun-wu comes to and runs to her aid. They manage to escape when the survivor opens the door and his wife falls on top of him and biting him. Moments later, Yu-bin and Jun-wu hear the sound of helicopters and make a break for the roof to try and signal them. When they make it, though, they see no helicopters and the infected burst through the rooftop door.

Just when you think all his lost, a helicopter rises up and two military officers open fire on the infected, keeping them at bay along enough to get Jun-wu and Yu-bin to safety. As they fly off, Jun-wu’s phone goes off and he sees he’s received many messages from his mother, and he realizes his family (at least, some of them) is alive.

This movie starts off feeling very college-level. While the zombie action starts almost immediately, there isn’t much going on in the way of really anything except Jun-wu going through each day, and the acting leaves a bit to be desired. There’s not much in the way of gore, which some people might prefer, and only one jump scare. Other than that, there really wasn’t much too it.

But before you go thinking I hate this movie, I do have to say that it gets better the further along it goes. You find yourself being sucked into the lives of Jun-wu and Yu-bin and their battle to stay alive. The ending with the helicopter rescue was a little predictable, but I can’t fault it for that since a lot of films and TV are predictable.

I can’t say I’m anxious to watch this again, but it wasn’t terrible. I’ve definitely seen worse. If you’re a die-hard zombie fan, you might get enjoyment out of it. I will say, though, the zombies run and they’re extremely intelligent. I mean like knowing how to climb ropes. Because that does happen at one point. I’m not a big fan of that when it comes to zombie flicks, but I didn’t hate it, either. I’d say give this one a shot. You might really like it.

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