PUCHON INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: One of the joys of attending the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival every year is that in addition to the festival, the summer crop of Korean blockbusters are just launching. For reasons that would take double the length of this review to explain, many Korean Film companies decided to boycott PiFan due to 'creative differences’ way back in 2004. This means that some films, such as Haeundae and The Host, which would be a natural fit for PiFan, are quarantined from the festival.
Deranged brims with metaphors, but refuses to be completely nailed down
So, for the true cinema anthropologist: it’s off to the movies – sometimes accompanied by a Korean-speaking friend, sometimes struggling with the lack of subtitles by one’s self – to see the films that are currently rocking Korean audiences. This year’s must-see was the film known internationally as Deranged (though the title The Virus was clearly printed in English on my ticket). A runaway South Korean hit, this is an inevitable pickup for distributors who are on the lookout to duplicate the international success of Boon Jong-ho’s The Host. At time of writing, Deranged has passed 4.4 million local ticket sales.
The central premise is that in the tributaries of Seoul’s Han River, the discovery of drowned bodies is becoming a disturbing daily occurrence. As the inexplicable drownings increase, the resultant mass panic is fanned by the local media.
Medical supplies salesman Jae-Hyuk (Kim Myung-min) uses his contacts within his company, which also manufacturers pharmaceuticals, and consults with his policeman brother who is in charge of the investigation. Jae-Hyuk discovers – and soon it is no secret – that a parasite has entered Seoul’s water supply and that it can be transferred from person to person by the exchange of bodily fluids via shared eating utensils or kissing. Once it begins living off humans as a host system, the parasite leeches people of their natural moisture and dehydrates them. The burning sensation is so intense that the contaminated individuals are driven to submerge themselves into water – to the point of drowning – to quench their burning thirst.
Though the touchstones for this film are The Andromeda Strain and The Satan Bug, the film’s concern with the mass media and its critique of consumerism suggests Deranged has more on its mind than a recreation of the mainstream AIDS hysteria of the 1980s. The manner in which the afflicted initially revel with consumerist zeal in their excessive imbibing of water implies a dark satire of contemporary Korean society.
Like The Host, Deranged brims with metaphors, but refuses to be completely nailed down and nor does subtext obscure its purpose as entertainment. Director Park Jung-woo (who wrote 1999 cult favourite Attack the Gas Station) sweeps the audience along and juggles its multiple strands – the search for an antidote, the housing of the contaminated masses without losing momentum. The film may depict chaos, but is never overwhelmed by it.
Korean studio CJ Entertainment will no doubt try and market this film internationally. But this also screams remake potential for the United States. So the question arises: Which will be the dominant virus, the homegrown version or the powerful Hollywood strain?
