Overall, it was an impressive film. I liked it. Some things that boggled me though were how come only some people got infected by touching the monster and how come the people weren't affected by the Agent Yellow, which is similiar to Agent Orange, I assume? I think what caused the american, Donald to get infected by something was not because he 'touched' the creature but was because the creature probably spitted some kind of poisonous saliva on him.
There are some things I'd like to talk about before I get to the theme of the movie. One of them is the special effects which, for a Korean film, it was very believable. The way the creature looked, you would think the special effects came from ILM or WETA DIGITAL or DIGITAL DOMIAN but no. The scene that was literally suspenseful and grabbed me was when the creature first emerged out of the water. That was impressive and a helluva way to start the movie. I liked the shot where Hyun-seo was grabbed by her father after she came out of the concession stand and they were running in slow motion away from the creature with the crowd running around them. Because it seemed like everyone was running in slow motion but the creature was running fast, which sort of reminded me of dreams because usually when you're chased in your dreams, you're slower than the person chasing you.
I liked the main character, the blonde haired Gang-Du, and how childish and irresponsible he was at the beginning of the film with his family and daughter and throughout the film, after he realized that his daughter was still alive, he literally grew into a man or father in order to save her. Also, how each family member had their own sort of problems, like the sister not being able to 'let go', which had to do with her archery and at the end, she literally saved the day by being able to 'let go' and fire the arrow when it was needed.
Another scene that I love was the scene where the brother, Nam-il arrived at the 'funeral' where the family is grieving and crying. I know it's not suppose to be funny but for some reason, I couldn't stop from laughing the entire time, especially when the brother got pissed at the photographers and swing at them when they were taking pictures and when he started hitting and kicking the Gang-Du.
I think the theme of this film has to do with family and their journey to come together by setting aside their careers and differences in the time of a tragedy. They had to come together as a family in order to save Hyun-seo. At the beginning of the film, Gang-Du was basically a kid himself with a kid who probably was being raised by her grandparent, instead of her father and by the end of the film, we see a physical and emotional change in Gang-Du. His hair is natural and he seems to be much more responsible in the last scene with him making dinner for the orphan boy, whom I presume he took in, and instead of watching television, he sat down with him and eat dinner while keeping a watch on the horizon.
Also, I forgot to touch upon the beginning scene which has to do with the theme also, to me, anyway. It seems that a lot of our problems start in labotories and society ends up with the filth that the scientists basically flush out. The creature was mutated, due to the chemicals the lab assistant (who committed suicide by jumping into the water at the beginning) flushed into the sewer system so it's apparent that the symbolism in that is one that brings America to my mind. In my opinion, the scnes with Gang-Du in the hospital reminded me of the way our government seems to take control of us when they shouldn't, adding to the 'police state' dilemma that most of our enemies claim is the reason they hate us. So, to me, the theme of the movie is twofold: one having to do with a singular family coming together as one and putting aside their differences in a tragedy to save their sibling and it also has to do with the way the government treats the citizens in the time of a tragedy, almost as if they cause tragedies to happen just so they can take control, which is sort of like with the airline scare right now with passengers being X-RAYed.
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