A man-made attempt at reducing global warming went out of control to the opposite extreme, causing a global ice age that killed off the entire life on Earth. The remaining couple of thousands of people travel in a long train run by engineer Wilford. Curtis is one of the many of the lower class passengers who starts a revolt inspired by his leader Gilliam, in order to topple Wilford and avenge all the people who died from appalling conditions. Together with door cracker Namgoon and his daughter Yona, Curtis and his gang walk towards the locomotive. Finally there, Wilford explains to Curtis that Gilliam was working with Wilford all along in order to have an excuse to kill many from the lower class and reduce the overpopulation. Wilford also offers Curtis to be his heir. However, he refuses and the causes the train to crash. Yona and a kid exit the train and spot a polar bear outside in the snow.
This ultra-pessimistic dystopian film offers a dark perspective on the limitations and determinism of physical-biological aspects that define human life, advancing into a Greek tragedy in which there is no solution or escape from this state, yet its spasmodic story and nihilistic elements are so crippling that they in the end become the movie's own flaw, whereas director Joon-ho Bong definitely lost some of his amazing, creative style from his early films that announced him as the new hope of South Korean cinema. "Snowpiercer" is basically an allegory on human history which, just like the train, just goes on in endless circles, unravelling about the never-ending class struggle in which the lower class is rebelling against the upper class, yet just like other frauds in history (the October Revolution, the Iranian Islamist Revolution...), it just ends with the revolutionaries becoming the new oppressor, the new upper class, contemplating about the need for humans to abandon these endless violences and bloody battles in order to finally grow up and resolve the issue with dialogue. The concept here is problematic in several aspects, though: for instance, why a train? If these are the only survivors of humanity, why not place them in a stationed place, such as a dome? Travelling across the world in a mobile train is dangerous, especially since nobody is fixing or mending the railroad. Why risk that even one wagon gets separated? Why can't the train simply stop when its not going anywhere, anyway? Other inconsistencies and illogical plot points bother as well: for instance, what does Curtis aim to accomplish, anyway? The story was simply not that well thought out to the end. It is an ambitious, yet bizarre and twisted film at the same time that is not for everyone's taste.
Grade:++
No comments:
Post a Comment