Review of Flu

"We're from the government, we're here to help you!" has become a popular ironic meme. For the Koreans, though, it hits twice as hard, as they have not only the ordinary corrupt cops and military personnel, not only the politicians covering their own asses, but also asshole Americans who think they can control the situation by, you guessed it, killing everything. It helps that they are Koreans and not American citizens. And there are, of course, the Koreans: mother fighting to save her 4 year old no matter what, courageous hero who wants to help everybody, especially the cute single mom, all kinds of emotive characters who just have to make funny faces and do dramatic things.

This is about the gist of the film. The rest is the virus, which is a non descript avian flu which causes rash, coughing blood and death soon after. I wish this could have focused more on the actual impact of the virus on people and society. Instead it keeps the camera on the hero and the single mom, with occasional lapses to other characters. As such, it is more a disaster movie than a contagion one. It is also educational, when you see how easy it can get from a civilized society to soldiers burning bodies and killing people who want to get away from the quarantine zones dead in the streets.

Bottom line: entertaining and fun most of the time, a good Korean movie, but it came very close to being much much better.