Ashfall

Ashfall (2019)

Runtime: 130 minutes

Directed by: Byung-Seo Kim/Hae-Jun Lee

Starring: Byung-Hun Lee, Jung-Woo Ha, Hye-Jin Jeon, Dong-Seok Ma, Suzy Bae

From: Several South Korean companies

I tell you, some things have compounded as of late and it has not only thrown off my schedule in general, but so does me watching movies and posting about them here. Hopefully now things will be back on track: 

A Chinese knock-off Ford Focus: indestructible.

My schedule has returned to a sense of normalcy, allowing me to end my few day sabbatical, to the point that I was able to see this movie theatrically yesterday, which required a little bit of a journey to view. Getting to see a Korean movie on the big screen is an event that only happens infrequently where I live; Parasite's success is an anomaly. It seemed like a loony disaster picture (and it was) but I did recognize most of the main players from previous Korean movies.

Earthquakes and volcanoes are happening at the same time on the Korean peninsula... to quote Ashfall itself: the entire peninsula is colossally F'ed if the biggest eruption is allowed to occur. The solution to this problem: a Korean-American suggests that a NUCLEAR BOMB be detonated in a mine shaft right by the volcano and this will solve all the problems. Somehow, I imagine Neil Degrasse Tyson would be horrified to hear of this scheme. Of course, young neophytes end up having to sneak into North Korea to steal their nukes and add it to their detonator, and a turned spy imprisoned in the North also has to be broken out in order for the plan to come to fruition.

The movie is pretty silly and there was more humor than I was expecting, making me fear that Korean cinema is starting to borrow that bad habit from modern Hollywood. That said, at least it was reasonably entertaining as plenty of things are destroyed, along with shootouts involving North Koreans, Chinese and even Americans; not surprisingly in these modern times, the United States is portrayed poorly as being overbearing and trying to run things in South Korea as they are in chaos, along with chiefly being concerned with Americans in the country. They did do a swell job in presenting Korea as a nightmarish hellscape as plenty of ash did fall on the land, along with the carnage the earthquakes created. Another non-surprise is that there is melodrama present. There are several tropes which seem to be a constant in Korea's cinema: I'll specifically bring up “pregnant lady” and “crying child.”

It's been awhile since I've seen Byung-Hun Lee in something so it was nice to view him here in a juicy role as the North Korean spy. Eternals is something I have zero interest in but I know many do... once that hits I know that Dong-Seok Ma's profile will shoot up exponentially once that drops; at least I can give Eternals credit for diversity. This isn't even the best disaster movie I've seen from South Korea (only a few I have seen, but The Tower is something I can recommend) yet this was still fine and there were moments that legit made me laugh, such as North Korea apparently using a Chinese knock-off Ford Focus as taxis, or how from this movie you get the impression that they are indestructible and if you ever need to transport a detonator on a rocky landscape as a volcano is erupting all around you...