Park Jung-woo's Korean disaster flick PANDORA follows the trials and tribulations of a large cast of characters in a story centred around a nuclear meltdown. It's a lengthy, episodic affair, notable for featuring some hugely suspenseful moments around the middle of the running time, and some good disaster sequences, particularly a well-handled earthquake and explosion. However, it's also notable for dolloping in the melodrama with no restraint whatsoever. Most viewers of Korean cinema will be used to melodramatic scenes, but this is by far the most extreme I've seen; the whole last forty minutes of the film just consists of characters crying and screaming at each other. It's a bit much to take, especially for this reserved Brit, and it sours things a little. It's a shame, as other stuff is good: as usual for a Korean film, the political commentary and satire is spot on, while both the scenario and key moments are reminiscent of the Japanese Fukushima disaster as well as the more recent HBO miniseries CHERNOBYL, the latter still the definitive treatment of the subject.
Review of Pandora
