Movie: Pandora (12)

Rating: 4.5/5

All know very well that South Korean movies are emotionally very engaging. When I started to watch this disaster-action film PANDORA, I wasn't expecting anything of the grade it went on to transform into. Yes, the trailer raised expectations and I knew what the film would be about, but I didn't know it would be this excellent.

PANDORA is a film which takes some time to build up, but when it does, it doesn't let go of the grip it has on you. I was seriously left spellbound as to what would happen next. Certain scenes are so well filmed that they deserve a standing ovation.

The performances are extremely mindblowing. They hold you very well, especially Kim Nam-gil's performance in the climax. I mustn't forget to mention that I was seriously crying and shedding tears while watching the emotional scenes. After TRAIN TO BUSAN, this is the second South Korean film which made me cry.

The technical aspects are amazing. The cinematography is decent, the visual effects are excellent and the action sequences: simply jaw- dropping.

PANDORA is a film which isn't a must see but indeed a SHOULD see movie.

Park Jung-woo's Korean disaster flick PANDORA follows the trials and tribulations of a large cast of characters in a story centred around a nuclear meltdown. It's a lengthy, episodic affair, notable for featuring some hugely suspenseful moments around the middle of the running time, and some good disaster sequences, particularly a well-handled earthquake and explosion. However, it's also notable for dolloping in the melodrama with no restraint whatsoever. Most viewers of Korean cinema will be used to melodramatic scenes, but this is by far the most extreme I've seen; the whole last forty minutes of the film just consists of characters crying and screaming at each other. It's a bit much to take, especially for this reserved Brit, and it sours things a little. It's a shame, as other stuff is good: as usual for a Korean film, the political commentary and satire is spot on, while both the scenario and key moments are reminiscent of the Japanese Fukushima disaster as well as the more recent HBO miniseries CHERNOBYL, the latter still the definitive treatment of the subject.

Nuclear energy is dangerous. Or rather the factories that handle the precious material. Amidst all this there is human drama and you always have that in movies about incidents that big. Of course as always we get to know the people that we are about to care through the course of the movie and it has a nice beginning.

The build up is good too, to a certain point. But there is almost too much cliché in it. You then get the effects. And they are really up to the task. I don't know how realistic I would call certain scenarios (probably not very much),but they do their job. So this is more than decent enough with a lot of TV movie of the week drama being shared. At the end it may get a bit unbearable, but that's just the way it is ...