After an earthquake, the remaining residents in an apartment complex try to survive. They choose a leader, and this leader has a dark secret that only he knows about. It all goes downhill from there because there’s no help in sight and it looks like South Korea is destroyed.
On paper, there’s nothing special about Concrete Utopia if you closely examine the plot. We have the usual selfish people who live in an apartment complex and are trying to survive. They make a rule that no outsiders are welcome since food is scarce. However, there is someone with a conscience who represents something you don’t typically associate with humankind: kindness. So you understand what will happen, and that’s boring, right?
The first 50 minutes of the movie proceed as expected until a dark secret is revealed. We learn that the appointed leader of the apartment complex is not a man you can trust. At the start of the movie, he acts like a goofball, and the first scene where he appears leaves a big question mark about the acting of Lee Byung-hun. You know that this man is one of the best actors in Asia, so I guess he meant to act as badly as he did in the scene when they tried to put out the fire in one of the apartments.
Concrete Utopia is a movie that gets darker and darker, and you end up hating 90% of the people who live in the apartment complex. They are selfish and a bunch of cowards, and you don’t understand what they are living for since no one can help them, it seems. So they just have to accept that they will soon die and that most of them will not be missed. Outside the apartment complex, danger lurks everywhere, but the residents within the apartment complex are also dangerous to those outside. Drama!
The few people who have a conscience are a relief, but you hope that karma will come and eliminate 90% of the human trash that lives in the apartment complex.
After the first 50 minutes, I started to enjoy the movie because of the excellent acting performed by Lee Byung-hun. He delivers a fantastic role interpretation, and it’s not every day you see him playing such a despicable character. He is so good, and I promise you that you will hate him so much. You want to see him suffer and die a slow death. He’s such a loser, and he’s the leader!
What the movie lacks is character depth. There are not many characters you will get to know, but that’s not that important since it’s the message the movie sends that you will take with you. And that message is that humans will never learn anything. Pick a leader, follow the leader, and all things will go to hell when you don’t stand up for yourself and eliminate the crazy leader. What we learn again and again is that don’t be a sheep; follow your path and show the finger to 90% of the human race.
Even though there are a lot of movies like Concrete Utopia, Concrete Utopia manages to stand on its own feet. It offers a lot of chaos and anger aimed at the characters who try to survive and create their twisted society. But the movie is entertaining. It has some intense scenes and a surprising moment when a character has to say goodbye to us and travel up to heaven. Don’t be fooled by the start of the movie when it tries to charm you. It will get much darker, that I promise you.