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.

"Pandora" is a disaster movie from South Korea that happened to stay low enough on the radar to avoid my interest up until now in mid-2017. So when I found this 2016 movie in the Asian section, I was naturally interested and after having read the synopsis, I decided to give the movie a go and went to sit down to watch it.

It is the thrilling storyline that really keeps the audience at the edge of their seats, because writer and director Park Jung-woo really managed to construct a very realistic and compelling story that deals with an interesting topic. And the storyline is really helped along quite nicely by an interesting character gallery.

I will say that the storyline worked out on multiple levels, because you are equally interested in what happens to the power plant and on a national scale, but at the same time you have an equal interest in the characters throughout the movie. So this was a great accomplishment for writer and director Park Jung-woo.

While mentioning the characters, then it should be said that the people they had cast for the various roles and characters were quite nicely cast, and they were performing quite well with these roles and characters. Now it was generally an entire cast of new faces for me, so I was more than happy to see new talents on the screen, especially when they performed as nicely as they did here.

The special effects and CGI in "Pandora" were quite good and quite convincing. I was especially impressed with the explosion when the power plant exploded, that just looked very cool.

A disaster movie like this is naturally enhanced by a great music score, and the music they composed for "Pandora" was quite good. It had excitement, yet it was still subtle enough to serve as background music. It most definitely added a good layer of suspense and thrill to the movie.

There is a great sense of urgency and panic throughout the movie, and that really helped to cement the realism that permeated the movie. And I was especially impressed with how the various characters went about dealing with the situation, ranging from ordinary residents to high ranking government officials.

"Pandora" is a rather compelling story, and I must admit that I was genuinely surprised with how exciting and interesting director and writer Jong-woo Park had managed to make this movie. Especially since there is a very realistic feel and atmosphere to the movie. If you enjoy disaster movies and if you are a fan of Asian cinema, then you definitely owe it to yourself to sit down and watch this 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.