Doomsday Book (2012)

Directed by: Jee-woon Kim, Pil-Sung Yim | 109 minutes | comedy, drama, fantasy, science fiction | Actors: Doona Bae, Joon-ho Bong, Ji-hee Jin, John D. Kim, Kang-woo Kim, Jun-hee Ko, Dong-seok Ma, Hae-il Park, Seung-beom Ryu, Sae-Byeok Song

Korean cinema continues to surprise, since the late 1990s a steady stream of excellent films has been coming from the country that before that time was cinematically lagging behind its neighbor Japan. Today, the roles may have been reversed; Korean movies stand out in originality, story and in some ways are a bit more accessible to Western audiences due to the strong American influence in Korea. Although ‘Doomsday Book’ (2012) is not a good example of originality, the film manages to deliver three tried and tested themes in a surprising way. ‘Doomsday Book’ consists of three separate stories with an overarching theme: the end, or the possible end of humanity.

The first story ‘A Cool New World’ is about a gangly boy who accidentally creates a dangerous virus by mixing garbage in the bio-bin. The bio-waste is processed into animal feed and eventually the virus in the form of a contaminated piece of meat ends up on the plate of the goofy hero and his girlfriend. An accident is in a small corner, because moments later he turns into a zombie just like everyone he comes in contact with. Not much later, the virus took on pandemic forms. From that moment on, this story follows the now classic rules of the zombie film. Streets full of zombies, people who lock themselves in shopping centers and on rooftops, and of course the chaotic television news in which so-called experts still try to maintain the appearance of control. ‘A Cool New World’ opts for the humorous angle here and this has also been done before, but the absurd and dry, dry humor is certainly still laughable and the corniness is avoided by a nostalgic note that is so typical of the East. Asian cinema.

The second story ‘The Creation of Heaven’ is the least of the three, although the story about a robot in a monastic monastery who has achieved the highest level of enlightenment, namely that of Buddha, is certainly worth mentioning. The monks summon a repairman to examine their robot and have him confirm whether the robot has indeed become a Buddha or not. The repairman doesn’t want to hear about this, but refuses to report back to the company that makes this type of robot. The company gets wind of it and sends a team led by the director to the monastery to destroy the robot. A robot that thinks it is superior to humans can only be dangerous for the survival of the human race, according to the director. What makes this part the weakest are the endless discussions about whether or not the robot can be illuminated and whether this is dangerous or not. For a short story it is a lot of arguments, philosophical considerations and possible consequences in a short time. The climax in which the robot is about to be executed is therefore a bit messy and therefore lacks the emotional tension that is potentially present.

The last part ‘Happy Birthday’ is by far the strongest and also the most original in terms of content. Continuing the theme of an accident in a small corner, we see a little girl who has broken her father’s pool ball and, hoping he doesn’t find out, tries to order a new one over the internet. The order seems to fail and she throws the old ball out the window which then disappears into a mysterious hole. Two years later, Earth is threatened by a huge comet. The girl and her parents are already waiting in an air-raid shelter that they have built themselves to survive the inevitable apocalyptic impact. Then the comet turns out not to be a comet, but an extremely large pool ball that the girl had ordered ten years earlier, as it turns out, from space creatures! In this part too, a slightly humorous tone is chosen that fits perfectly with the surreal drama that the director manages to keep small, so that the final piece remains both emotional and exciting.

All three parts look excellent and the spectacular subjects, be it a city overrun by zombies, an illuminated robot, or a 10-kilometer-diameter pool ball impact on South Korea, come cinematic. convincingly painted. ‘Doomsday Book’ is a sympathetic triptych with a pinch of depth and humor.