Director Kim Sung-su leads the charge as we spend most of the 2 hours runtime in the company of the key players, fighting the virus, death, the mishandled military/political response to the chaos and the general population in panic. It's mostly thrills, suspense and fast-moving action but there's still time to slip in a bit of a love story, family drama and humorous relief.
We start out with a pandemic-unrelated scene-setter in which a rescue worker is attempting to save a girl who is trapped in a car after apparently it fell into a sink-hole in the road. We get to know the pair and it just so happens that she's a doctor able to work later towards trying to save the people from the virus. He's a happy-go-lucky dude, out for fun, but also very much dedicated to his profession, disgruntled because when she was rescued she didn't even say thanks! Therein lies a plotline for later as he pursues her romantically.
She has a daughter who she loves dearly but seems to be irresponsible in terms of the amount of time and effort she spends with her, prioritising her work first over family values. During the course of the film, we see this swing around and it provide one of the messages of course! As the outbreak takes hold, the daughter gets directly involved because she comes into contract with someone who has the virus. Incidentally, there's no husband as he abandoned them in favour of a life in America before we join the story - which opens the door for our rescue worker.
The three of them leap between mini-disasters, helping each other, trying to help the people, getting trapped in awkward situations in makeshift quarantine camps, finding ways through and fighting off any chance of them not making it to the final reel! Meanwhile, we follow the virus as it spreads between people in ordinary situations with the tension building as more and more people get sneezed on, coughed on and touched, to pass it around. We've seen it before in the aforementioned films and it has been done better, but it's handled decently enough here to keep the audience committed.
Then the President turns up and various other authority figures as the fight between themselves, along with the hard-nosed American command team who seem to be present in the country to assist and partner east/west, takes hold. Different values emerge as they see the crisis in various ways and project outcomes based on what they consider to be the best course of action. Think Outbreak, again. So yes, nobody in the mix is really agreeing about how to handle this.
As we approach the second half of the film, things start to get ugly and various special effects are engaged to show harrowing activity as the military and authorities find ways to deal with the masses of dead people whilst still trying to stop the spread. I think you get the idea by now, that's it's pretty well done and certainly keeps the viewer on their toes - more so, the further we get in, away from the lighter and fluffy relationship stuff - which also turns serious.
Kang Ji-goo (Jang Hyuk) and Kim In-hye (Su Ae) play the leads very smartly, as the storyline starts with us disliking the girl, favouring the boy, but leads us to liking them both! The absolute star of the show though is the cute little girl. Played by Park Min-ha, she's on the face of it at the outset a precocious, over-confident little brat who reflects her mum's similar traits, but the girl's acting is just terrific. Like the other two, we warm to her over time and as the heat builds, she becomes much less cocky, more distraught and this is where her amazing ability at that young age shines through. It's almost worth watching the film just for her.
So yes, very well acted, something for everyone, tension, fun, drama, family stuff and at the heart a pandemic disaster movie that is well worth watching if you can track it down. Enjoyed it very much.
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