Movie review: Pandora (2016)

Near to a small town from South Korea is located the Hanbyul nuclear plant, on which a large number of the inhabitants work. Between them there is Jae-hyeok, a young dreamer who lives with his mother, his sister-in-law and his nephew, and who wants to marry to Yeon-joo, his girlfriend and co-worker. The boy desires to leave the town due to the poor salary and very poor work conditions in the the nuclear plant.

Those situations, alongside the place's lack of maintenance, the low specialization of the personnel, the governmental bureaucratic indifference (reflected on the decision to ignore the warning calls of Pyeong-seok, a specialist in the nuclear subject), and the ineptitude of the officials responsible for the plant, were evident after an earthquake of 6.1 on Richter scale shakes the region.

Pandora seems to be your typical disaster movie... But it's not. Not if it has an approach that makes you think on a theme that is not so far from reality.

The director Park Jung-woo, who is also the movie's screenwriter, exposes to us a hypothetical nuclear accident situation caused by natural (the earthquake) and human factors (governmental inefficiency and institutional indifference), and the consequences that the last ones bring to the life of the people. Examples of such consequences can be found throughout the film, from the protection of private interests at the cost of thousands of lives to the evidence of little (or none) preparation of the government on this type of situation.

Every and each one of the scenes from the movie (specially from the second half) make you think how viable  nuclear power can be in a few years, in what extent can human ambition reach for money and power and to hat extent a person is capable in order to do anything for his family and friends.

Now, I must say that the little (or probably none) use of exagerated XF was a great choice; it, in a certain way, helped to tell the story. The script, very well written, catches you from the beginning to the end. Although it contains all the elements of a typical disaster film, it has a background of social criticism about the environmental impact of nuclearization and its consequences. The performances of the cast were good and credible; with great skill they managed to appeal to the sensibility of the audience. 

Thus, if you're fan of this kind of movies and are you looking for originality, with no doubt you'll love this Korean production.