The action, sensational film Emergency Landing (Emergency Declaration) with the participation of Song Kang Ho, Lee Byung Hun, Jeon Do Yeon is likened to Train to Busan in the air version.
Emergency Declaration is the latest movie by Korean filmmaker Han Jae Rim. Starting out as a screenwriter, up to now, Han Jae Rim has only sat in the director’s chair five times, but four of these – including The Show Must Go On (2007), The Face Reader (2013), The King (2017). ) and Emergency Declaration (2022) – were both critically acclaimed.
In 2021, Emergency Declaration will represent Korean cinema to attend the 74th Cannes Film Festival in the category of “Movies Out of Competition”. The work also marks the first time that Han Jae Rim’s name has been introduced at one of the biggest film festivals on the planet. The film is often compared to Train to Busan in the air. Does the comparison only contain the expectation that the work will be as famous as the work that exploits the disaster theme that Yeon Sang Ho once made?
Air disaster
In the Emergency Declaration, the incident happened on flight number KI501 from Korea to Hawaii. Midway through the journey, a passenger developed many strange symptoms such as high fever, hemorrhage and eventually death. In the blink of an eye, the pathogen spread throughout the plane, sparking a crisis in the air and on the ground.
On the flight, single father Jae Hyuk (Lee Byung Hun) quickly discovered an anomaly in Jin Seok’s (Im Si Wan) movements. The terrorist was quickly unmasked. At the same time, on the ground, police inspector In Ho (Song Kang Ho) also aggressively conducted an investigation to rescue those trapped in the air.
The bioterrorism incident also poses a difficult problem for the Korean government. A quick response force was immediately established under the leadership of Minister Sook Hee (Jeon Do Yeon). However, the more time passed, the more problems got out of hand. Because in the first place, what they have to deal with is more than just a hostage situation.
Emergency Declaration belongs to the series of disaster blockbusters. This is a topic that is no longer new to world cinema in general and Korea in particular. Hollywood tends to turn natural disasters into the backdrop of a heroic messiah. But in Korean movies, events that are out of control will always be an excuse to create hundreds of more complicated problems. In that picture, there is no character of goodwill, much less the concept of a lone hero.
Lee Byung Hun’s image in Emergency Declaration
On the official website of Cannes, writer Manon Ruffel introduced Emergency Declaration: “The film continuously moves from the oppressive atmosphere inside the plane to the happenings on the ground – where political conflicts and Ethical issues arise in tandem with the media. This is a thriller, whose influence is enhanced by the resonance of the current world situation.”
Emergency Declaration was filmed in early 2020, right before the Covid-19 pandemic broke out on a worldwide scale. This is a paradoxical situation when the production of a film about a dangerous infectious disease was interrupted by a deadly pandemic in real life. Sharing about this coincidence, director Han Jae Rim admitted, “I can’t help but feel surprised when I witness with my own eyes that everything I imagined in the script came true.”
A calculated project of Korean cinema
The non-competitive category of the Cannes Film Festival is a stage for Korea to introduce to international audiences grandiose and entertaining commercial films. The series of works “smartly show off” a modern Korean film industry, with advanced technologies and a vision not inferior to European and American countries.
Before becoming a global phenomenon, Train to Busan was also screened at the Cannes Film Festival in the non-competition category. This is the most resounding work among the films that have been submitted by Korea to the Out of Competition category of the Cannes Film Festival since 2008. One can read the ambition to create a work with equal impact. look up Train to Busan of Korean cinema through Emergency Declaration.
Emergency Declaration opens slowly with police investigation In Ho
The work of director Han Jae Rim was invested approximately 19.2 million USD. The number is significantly higher than many typical Korean disaster-themed works such as The Tower (2012), The Flu (2013) – all costing less than 10 million USD – or Ashfall (2019) with 17 ,7 million USD. Peninsula (2020), the sequel set in the post-apocalyptic setting of Train to Busan also only needs an investment of 16 million USD to complete. The Emergency Declaration shows the producer’s hand in hand to create an epic cinematic experience, aimed at a target far beyond the domestic market.
Taking on important roles in the film are Song Kang Ho, Jeon Do Yeon and Lee Byung Hun. Lee Byung Hun has appeared in many big-budget Hollywood action works. Song Kang Ho is also a familiar name to movie fans outside of Korea, especially after the success of Parasite (2019). Jeon Do Yeon also went down in history as the first Korean actress to win an acting award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Korean filmmakers had a meticulous plan to promote Korea through Emergency Declaration
In addition to the three main faces, “Emergency Declaration” also gathers a cast of many faces who often take on tough roles like Kim Nam Gil or Kim So Jin. Finally, in the role of a devil genius, Im Si Wan – a member of the boy group ZE:A – despite being young and inexperienced compared to his co-stars, still left an indelible mark.
The stars of Emergency Declaration are not only veteran actors of the Korean big screen, but also brand faces, helping to identify Korean cinema in the international arena. International audiences may be unfamiliar with the name Han Jae Rim, but the trio of Song Kang Ho, Lee Byung Hun and Jeon Do Yeon are certainly enough to evoke a sense of familiarity and confidence in the quality of the content. content of works.
Disaster movie formula repetition
In the Emergency Declaration, the spread of the virus on an airplane quickly turned into a humanitarian disaster. No country is willing to risk the safety of its people to welcome KI501 – now like a biological weapon – to land. Rejection also comes from within Korea itself, when society is divided by the question of whether to land the plane or not. Even the heads of the country find it difficult to agree on the answer.
Finally, it is the people who are stuck on the plane with a burning desire to live for three hours “returning home” who also begin to wonder about their own fate. They still have relatives, unfinished dreams, love, and a future ahead… to fight. They have the right to life, to receive help when in need. But they also seem to be no longer welcome and, conversely, asked to take the responsibility of making a great sacrifice.
Im Si Wan has successfully transformed into a perverted killer
Along with the dramatic journey to track down the terrorist and find the antidote, the Emergency Declaration also strangled the audience’s hearts many times when posing contradictions about morality and humanity, about the ego and us. ta. The movie script has many layers of events: we have a murder case where the truth of the perpetrator is still in the dark, a pervert is plotting a crime on an airplane, a confrontation with shady corporations, intense battle on the diplomatic front…
Connecting these sensational but discrete events is an emotional story line about men who are willing to sacrifice their lives for their wives and children. In desperation, In Ho is ready to use the most extreme way to protect his family. Jae Hyuk accepts to face the psychological trauma by hoping to close the painful past and move towards a bright future with his daughter. But in this battle, standing between them and the prospect of “peaceful family” is too many obstacles.
If replacing the plane with a train, the Emergency Declaration does not make too much of a difference compared to Train to Busan. The films all have men who sacrifice themselves for their families, there are controversies that touch on contradictions in human nature, there are helplessness from those who are at the helm… Both works are critical of the indifference in modern society is opposed to the constant value of family affection. The hunger of the zombies can also be compared with the selfishness of public opinion when, in the end, they all push the victim to death.
Lee Byung Hun’s character reminds me of Gong Yoo’s role in Train to Busan
World cinema has had too many films about terrorist attacks in the air. Therefore, it is hard to blame the Emergency Declaration for making the audience, at one point or another, suddenly think of an Airplane! (1980), Snakes on a Plane (2006) or even, Top Gun: Maverick (2022). In addition, the fact that Lee Byung Hun’s character’s identity was revealed very early in the first half of the film also made the audience’s excitement for the third act more or less chipped. All the details set up to create surprises and drama for the biggest climax of the movie could not win the waiting for the moment Jae Hyuk “surpassed himself”.
Overall, the Emergency Declaration is thorough in both the image and the content. The work deserves to be one of the representatives of modern Korean cinema, one nine and ten with Train to Busan. However, in depth, the film is still lacking in uniqueness when the Emergency Declaration is also a common outline for many other disaster-themed works that have been produced by Korea. Watching the movie, the difficult audience could not avoid the frowns of “why is this movie similar to that movie”.
Photo: Showbox