#Alive (2020)

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

GENRE: ASIAN, ZOMBIE
SOURCE: STREAMING (NETFLIX)

Hopefully someday all social media will be wiped off the planet, because there is simply no argument against the fact that the world was better before the likes of Twitter and Facebook came along. Yes, they have their merits, and I am a frequent user of both, but mostly out of a necessity - everyone is simply expected to be on them now, and staying away from them means being left out of birthday parties, not knowing what's going on with close friends or family since no one picks up a phone anymore, etc. And should that day come, we can look at film titles like #Alive (translated from #Saraitda, if IMDb is correct) as a relic of the past: "Back in the 2010s we used the pound symbol to denote a trend or make a Twitter joke! And Twitter was something we could use to make fun of the President!"

Until then, at least the annoying "timely" title makes sense in the context of the film, which is largely pro-social media for the record (the final shot makes it clear, it's almost uplifting until you remember those same accounts have probably been on one end or both of some kind of reprehensible message). Our hero, Oh Joon-woo, is a Youtube streamer/gamer who pretty much lives his existence online, and uses other hashtags throughout the film, which takes place mostly in his apartment as a zombie virus rages outside. For a while it's a sort of one-man show, as the zombie breakout occurs within seconds of the film's opening and he is home alone in a highrise apartment, so he barricades the door and uses his various tech to communicate with unseen others or post updates to his channel. He doesn't have much food or supplies, and one by one services are cut out, leaving him more isolated and desperate. It's only when he decides to off himself that another survivor makes her presence known - a girl who lives across the street in another apartment, who uses a laser pointer to get his attention and convince him not to give up yet.

And so for a while it's a two person piece, as he uses a drone to attach a rope stretching across their balconies so that she can send food over (she's more fully stocked) and he can send a walkie talkie over for them to talk and warn each other of dangers, since he can see zombies above or below her and vice versa. It's not particularly exciting or unique, but the two leads are charming enough to make up for it, and thanks to zombie movie law, you know that if there's only two people in the movie, one of them is either going to get bit, or sacrifice themselves to save the other, so there's some tension in knowing that an inevitable tragedy is coming just as they're getting to know each other and find a reason to live.

But then, alas, the movie dips into the worst zombie trope: EVIL HUMANS. They decide that their apartments are no longer sustainable and try to get to a safer one together, only to get overrun and then rescued by a third survivor, who takes all of 11 seconds to poison them and try to feed them to his now zombie wife. As these sort of things go it's not the worst example, to be fair, but it doesn't matter - the thing that was making the movie stand out a bit in its overcrowded genre was now lost. Chevy Chase could have shown up to save them while dressed as Snake Plissken and playing the Shocker soundtrack from a boombox and it wouldn't have been able to get me back in its corner after that.

Worse, they actually have some fun ideas for the zombies, making them an above average threat for this sort of thing. Taking a cue from Romero, they retain some of their memories, which comes to a head when a climber type manages to scale the outside of the building up to the girl's balcony. This could have been utilized throughout to present new dangers for them to overcome - the building's super could have the keys, a zombie could (clumsily) drive, whatever the case may be - instead they once again decide that in a world of undead monsters, the REAL THREAT IS YOUR FELLOW MAN. You know, like in 75% of every zombie movie ever made. Is it realistic? Well, yeah - we're seeing it now with the pandemic. But realism isn't a requirement, especially with something as fantastical as zombies, so why so many zombie filmmakers feel the need to resort to this tired trope so often is beyond me. No other sub-genre is constantly undermining its own marquee threat, it'd be like if Quint suddenly put on a mask and tried to murder Brody and Hooper on the Orca, or Jason Voorhees having to compete with that oil slick from Creepshow 2.

At least it's serviceable enough until that point, though I have to insist if you're watching on Netflix that you switch the default English dub over to its original Korean and turn on the subtitles, as the dubbing is not great. The subtitles aren't lazy either; they are pretty good with translating the various notes and on-screen messages so that we can follow along (the title itself is one such example, when he puts it in his video). Ironically though, the best scene in the movie doesn't really require sound at all - it's a scene where his family all walks in, happy to see that he's OK, his mom gently scolding him for not keeping more food in the house as he gives her a giant hug. Then they fade away and we realize it's just a daydream/hallucination of sorts, prompting him to break down and cry as he/we realize that they are in fact, probably all dead. Since he's relatively safe inside his apartment, there isn't as much traditional action in the film, which allows for these kind of moments that are rarer in other zombie films where constant threat/run and gunning is the order of the day.

Years ago there was a similar German movie named Rammbock that, for my money, was better than this one. It was not only a half hour shorter, but it added some levity and even a dash of absurdity to the situation to make up for the rather generic zombie mayhem that we've all seen a million times. If you're starved for new zombie fare, this should more or less do the trick, but given how we're all trapped in our homes and increasingly isolated these days, I'd say track down the funnier version of the same scenario (linked below since this one isn't physically available in the US). Might help your mental health. And if not, well, again, it's 30 minutes shorter. You can get back to Twitter quicker and find out what fresh hells have been unleashed since the movie began.

What say you?

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