Reviews

I love this movie. It was thought provoking and sure the rape scenes left me uneasy, but what made it uneasy was done subtly from the director by not showing you the whole rape scene, but more like showing you a bit and left it dangling there, and your mind works out the rest.

What some people failed to understand about the movie :

1) Julianne's character is immune to the blindness virus.

like all kinds of diseases, virus and such likes, there will be 1% of the whole world population being immune to each. And yes, that include AIDS

2) Why Julianne's character failed to use her sight to gain an advantage?

It was quite clear that if she had a choice, violence is the last thing on her mind. Most of the time her husband was the one who lead, If she had to be pushed to the very edge before attacking back, then it's obvious she didn't even want to attack in the first place as it might put other innocent people in danger. Be reminded of how Ward 1 mentioned that a war will break out if they put up resistance. It's only when it was obviously confirmed that all guys in Ward 3 were complete scums that Julianne started thinking that attacking might be good after all. I remember reading somewhere that she actually wanted to attack the villain during the way to Ward 1, but was forced to abort it when a gun was pointed at another lady beside her when he forced Julianne to perform fellatio on him. During the 2nd rape scene, regardless of whether anyone was armed, it might still be tough for her to walk in alone and tried to attack the villain and thus risking been overpowered by the rest in the ward. It's men against a woman (remember the part where she got some food at the supermarket and how easily she was overpowered by others?) Especially when you can see how tight the spaces were in the ward. Heck, she barely made it outside after the attack. And that was just pure luck, where the stabbing made a complete chaos in the ward and gun shots were fired that further plunged the men into confusion. Even then, she had other women around her to further confused the men. It might be near impossible for her to do it alone without any distractions, especially when the naturally blind man was able to sense her even when the rapes was going on.

3)Why the men in other wards failed to stop their women from going?

The situation in the quarantine building is like a prison, where the guys in ward 3 were the guards and the rest prisoners. They put fear in them (the gun and the promise of punishment dealt to disobedient), lower their self esteem (by forcing them to hand in their possessions for food), and lastly their dignity and pride(the 3 days of low to no supply of food - surmounting to the rape decisions- coupled with the long period of lack of food throughout their stay), try being a position of all the above, and tell me you are man enough to stop the ladies in your ward from going. Bear in mind that they are strangers after all.

4) How the gun get into the building?

There is not a single scene in the movie that showed anyone of them being checked for weapons or anything. Instead the doctor was asked politely to hand his mobile phone over before the ride to the quarantine center. So we really doesn't need a rocket scientist to tell us how the gun get into the building. (seriously..)

5) No emphasize on why the white blindness was caused and how it cleared up?

Erm, i really don't think this is a movie about that. Its more about human nature when forced to a breaking point when under lots of physical and psychological tortures. And since it's obvious the director wanted the film to be thought provoking, to much explanations might kill that idea. The overall idea i get from the movie is that man can easily changed into another person after prolonged exposure to trauma like experiences and situation.

6)Why weren't there any tests done on anybody in the wards?

Since this white blindness disease/virus is a new thing. And not knowing how they spread, they have to take more precautions before attempting any test? maybe they meant to test them and look more into it at a latter time, but didn't get the chance because it spread pretty fast. But then again, this is not about the disease itself so much so as trying to portray human nature when a change in the balance of our life as significant as that happens.

So yeah, i really like this movie, so i'm giving it a 10. I live in Singapore, and i have seen how people overreacted to SARS when it first started. Covering their mouths and quickly walked when some stranger near them sneezed or coughed, stocking up on food at home, And it wasn't even that wild a virus. But what if SARS is highly contagious? Able to spread in under a few hours? To everyone except the 1% world wide population of people who are immune? I'm sure the panic and chaos would be really crazy. So who could really blame the guards in the movie for overreacting with the threat of shooting those who tried to get near them when little or none is known about the white blindness disease/virus.

Interesting : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0861689/trivia