While Parasite racks up awards, at the other end of the Korean film industry is Ashfall, a disaster epic filled with stars, action and special effects. Aimed squarely at mainstream viewers, it’s a fun if not completely successful knockoff of blockbusters ranging from Armageddon and San Andreas to The Wandering Earth. As escapist entertainment, Ashfall works best when it plays with the genre.
Directors Lee Hae-jun and Kim Byung-seo feint and parry with the story, starting the movie with Captain Cho In-chang (Ha Jung-woo), hero of a bomb disposal unit and proud but distracted father-to-be. He’s caught in a traffic jam when an earthquake hits Seoul, a carefully designed special-effects sequence that’s the most effective bit of filmmaking in the movie.
Turns out a volcano is about to explode, threatening South Korea with an 8.0 magnitude earthquake that would inflict untold casualties and destroy the country’s infrastructure. According to geology professor Kang Bong-rae (action star Don Lee / Ma Dong-seok in a change-of-pace role), the only way to stop the eruption is to detonate a nuclear bomb under the volcano.
And the only way to obtain nuclear warheads is to steal them from North Korea, where the US is in the process of securing six ICBM warheads in a denuclearization program. South Korean officials are counting on turncoat defector Ri Jun-pyong (Lee Byung-hun) to help locate and steal the weapons.
So Cho and his team fly through clouds of volcanic ash, parachute into North Korea, break Ri out of jail, and head to an underground weapons complex while fighting off attackers and exchanging banter.
Despite all the high-concept twists, Ashfall loses momentum as the filmmakers turn to sentimental subplots and back stories. An abandoned daughter preoccupies Ri; Cho is worried about his very pregnant wife. Kang blames the crisis on government indifference, ready to leave the country as a result. (He makes one of the few political statements in a movie that tiptoes around conflicts with North Korea.)
The bromance between Cho and Ri succeeds more on the strength of the performances by Ha and Lee than on credible dialogue or situations. Several ticking deadlines — evacuees waiting at docks, the erupting volcano, detonators on the nuclear warheads — fail to generate enough suspense. Even Don Lee can’t boost the film, especially when he’s relegated to hiding under his desk.
But face it, Ashfall isn’t trying to do anything more than entertain viewers. The filmmakers offer several sure fire action sequences as characters try to escape collapsing roads, bridges, hangers, apartment towers, mineshafts and dams. Production values are first-rate, from the persuasive digital effects to an apparently endless supply of junkyards and bombed-out buildings that much of the film takes place in. There’s also a nifty stand-off as Chinese gangsters, American armed forces, and the Koreans all try to nab an armed nuclear detonator. If you have a weakness for kinetic destruction, Ashfall has a lot to offer. The movie is already a success in Korea, and opened January 17 in New York City theaters and across the country from Capelight and MPI Media Group. Trailer: https://youtu.be/R_wqOOkWfdM
