Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Starring: Jun Ji-hyun, Koo Kyo-hwan, Ji Chang-wook, Kim Shin-rok, Shin Hyun-been, Go Soo
Country of Origin: South Korea
Running time: 2h 2m
The gunk infected adaptive hordes of the living dead will forcefully crawl their way into any reflection on Yeon Sang-ho’s spectacular survival epic.
Yet peel back the multiple layers of slime and a swarm of fractured relationships reveal themselves.
It’s the human element that shines through the gooey mess as those left behind in the muti-storey Dongwoori building must find a way to fend together for their lives.
The shiny high-rise in the South Korean capital of Seoul becomes the epicentre of a cataclysmic bio-terrorist outbreak during a conference focusing on cell regeneration.
There’s no guessing game to identify the culprit.
Early on vindictive biologist Seo Young-cheol (Koo Kyo-hwan) voluntarily calls the authorities after injecting a virulent mold into former colleague and bio company chief Kang Woo-cheol (Kim Jong-tae).
Disillusioned biotech professor Kwon Se-jeong (Jun Ji-hyun) had been persuaded to attend the event by ex-husband Han Gyu-seong (Go Soo) in the hope of landing a new position.
Instead, she finds herself as a leader in a small resistance group when the virus spreads rapidly creating a dead eyed army of gloopy covered slow walkers.
The building is quarantined as the search for Seo Young-cheol, who declares that he has the vaccine in his possession, plays out alongside a lethal game of dodge the creaky mass of fleshy pus.
A shopping mall located inside the building becomes the stage for the band that remain with all their faculties intact; a group that includes Han Gyu-seong, security guard Choi Hyun-seok (Ji Chang-wook) and his wheelchair bound sister Choi Hyun-hee (Kim Shin-rok), and tormented school student Lee So-eun (Lee Dam-hee).
The formation of sticky deadheads, who are in a constant state of metamorphosis due to an ability to absorb and understand basic information, provide a mesmerizing visual front as the real story behind the epidemic gradually unravels.
It’s with a mixture of shock and terror that the gathering wave of ooze and sludge rapidly comes to a complete stop, heads crocked upwards, mouths gaping open to shakily take in fresh reams of data to ensnare the last few survivors.
There’s a supreme confidence in the way director Yeon Sang-ho depicts the snarling, dripping lumps, with stunning trademark shots from above and horrific images of multiple biters mocking their targets and forming a seemingly impregnable, abominable wall of writhing fluidity.
It’s difficult not to take a breath just to marvel at the audacity and assuredness of creating such an appallingly monstrous world of repugnant inhabitants.
However, the actual humans provide the backbone of the story, much like it’s counterpart Train to Busan 부산행 (2016), and to a lesser degree, Peninsula 반도 (2020), which were also directed by Yeon Sang-ho.
Cheap genre branding and inane comparisons devalue a film that naturally points towards George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978) with its partial setting in a shopping mall.
Strip away the incredibly intricate choreography, convincing visual effects and effective make-up, and a theme of frayed relations runs throughout Colony.
From personal vendettas to failed marriage, school bullying, disability prejudice, and mass public protests, there’s a lot of substance amid the otherworldly pandemonium.
Everything points towards the seemingly insurmountable task to escape, and while Jun Ji-hyun is a worthy hero as the doggedly single-minded professor on a mission, the undoubted stand out performer is the ever striking Koo Kyo-hwan (who also starred as the bad guy in Peninsula).
The natural instinct is to cheer for the good guys – especially Ji Chang-wook who is brilliant as a fearless security guard that knows the building inside out, and Kim Shin-rok who displays great courage as his mobility affected older sister – but I couldn’t help but join Koo Kyo-wan in smiling as he unleashes deadly chaos.
Showing the insouciance of an untouchable mafia boss patrolling his territory as his clan of associates and underlings do all the dirty work, he is a malevolent delight as the psychologically damaged Seo Young-chul.
Despite limited screen time in the first two slightly drawn-out acts there’s an irresistible allure to his performance as a villain intent on creating a utopian society through cobwebs of disgusting gunge.
In an unforgiving arena of brutality Koo Kyo-wan somehow provides the heartbeat of the film, as a conniving, devilish, yet bizarrely likable character that reaches too far in his nefarious plan to create an unstoppable legion of the undead.
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(All pictures courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment)