Four stars. Rated R, for profanity, extreme violence and gore, and drug content
By Derrick Bang
South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon
Ho came to my attention in early 2007, with the Stateside release of The Host, a taut, eye-popping monster
flick that blended savvy political commentary with impressive levels of tension
and excitement ... and more than a little dark-dark-dark humor.
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| Having captured Mason (Tilda Swinton, center) and made her their unwilling guide, Curtis (Chris Evans, left) makes her lead the way as his desperate band moves from one train car to the next, never certain of what they'll find beyond each new door. |
Ho delivers the same mix with Snowpiercer, with a notable upgrade:
While portions of The Host reflected
the naturalistic, guerrilla-style filmmaking of a modest budget, this new film
is an A-list production all the way. It looks spectacular in every respect, and
is further enhanced by a top-quality cast of familiar faces from both American
and South Korean cinema.
The grim, cautionary nature of
Ho’s storytelling hasn’t diminished; he remains convinced that humanity doesn’t
deserve the planetary paradise on which we reside. Give us half a chance, and
we’ll screw it up. The horrific creature that wreaked havoc in The Host was spawned by arrogant Americans
who polluted South Korea’s Han River with dangerous chemicals; the
post-apocalyptic events in Snowpiercer
result from our “brilliant” attempt to reverse the effects of global warming.
I’m reminded of the conversations
known to have taken place prior to the initial atomic bomb tests in the 1940s —
attributed to either or both Edward Teller and J. Robert Oppenheimer, depending
on the source — and which explored the possibility that even a single bomb
might ignite Earth’s atmosphere via a fusion reaction, and thus destroy the
world. Such fears notwithstanding, Those In Charge pulled the switch, and I
guess we can conclude that God (and Mother Nature) watched over us that day.
Luck isn’t with us this time. The
essential back-story unfolds during a quick montage prologue, as news reports
discuss the dispersal of a chemical agent designed to reverse the effects of
global warming. We may well imagine a similar cautionary conversation about
unintended consequences, but no matter: This switch also is pulled, perhaps
just as recklessly, and the results are miraculous. At first.
Until the entire planet is
plunged into a lethal ice age, destroying all life.
But this catastrophic result
wasn’t instantaneous; time allowed a microcosm of humanity to be saved on board
a sleek, lengthy train originally designed as the ultimate, self-contained vacation
vehicle for rich tourists wanting to circumnavigate the globe. Now transformed
into a futuristic Noah’s Ark, there’s just one problem: Seventeen years have
passed, and there’s still no safe place to “land.”
The train races around the world,
its nickname derived from the pointed “snout” and high-tech engines and
gyroscopic computers that allow it to blast through the frequent snowdrifts and
frozen ice that block the track.
