Flu (film)

Flu
Hangul 감기
Revised Romanization Gamgi
McCune–Reischauer Kamgi
Directed by Kim Sung-su
Produced by Kim Sung-jin
Seo Jong-hae
Jeong Hoon-tak
Im Young-ju
Written by Lee Yeong-jong
Kim Sung-su
Starring Soo Ae
Jang Hyuk
Music by Kim Tae-seong
Cinematography Lee Mo-gae
Edited by Nam Na-yeong
Production
company
Distributed by iLoveCinema
CJ Entertainment
Release dates
  • August 14, 2013 (2013-08-14)
Running time
 121 minutes
Country South Korea
Language Korean
Box office US$19,775,853[1]

Flu (Hangul: 감기; RR: Gamgi) is a 2013 South Korean disaster film written and directed by Kim Sung-su, about an outbreak of a deadly disease which throws a city into chaos. It stars Jang Hyuk and Soo Ae.[2][3][4][5][6]

Plot

A group of illegal immigrants are smuggled to South Korea inside a shipping container, but when 2 traffickers open it in the affluent Seoul suburb of Bundang, they found the immigrants lying dead covered with rashes and blood except for a man, which is apparently a carrier of a deadly strain of a H5N1 virus (a type of avian influenza or bird flu). The traffickers contained the man in a van, as one of them started to feel ill. Meanwhile, the man had escaped and swept through Bundang.

Byung-woo, the ill titi was brought to a clinic by the other trafficker Byung-ki, which turns out to be his brother. Being innocent about the virus that Byung-woo carries, the doctor advised him to take rest and administered drugs to relieve flu symptoms. At that period, Byung-woo is starting to spread the deadly flu.

On the other side of the story, an ERT (Emergency Response Team) member named Kang Ji-goo rescued a doctor, Kim In-hae in an accident where Dr. Kim and her car was left hanging below a hole. Lately, Dr. Kim asked Ji-goo to help her get the stuff inside her car. Ji-goo initially refused, but eventually went down again to the hole to get the bag. As he got the stuff, Dr. Kim's phone rang and a voice of a girl answered on the other line. It was Dr. Kim's daughter. After that was the moment where Ji-goo met the little girl, Mi-reu to return the bag. Mi-reu was very much what would be a Doctor's daughter be like; a smart kid.

The next scene was Mi-reu looking for her cat, Navi, strayed to a parking lot of a building. This is when she met the man from the container, Monssai, after pulling the girl just before a rushing car. Monssai warned the girl not to get close to him because he is sick. But, since he was speaking in his native language, the girl probably did not understand him. Mi-reu, being concerned for Monssai after noticing that he is sick, decided to follow him and give him some food to eat.

Mi-reu and Monssai was able introduce themselves to each other, also because Monssai knows some English. Mi-reu started to get worried because Monssai continues to cough, so she told him to stay as she calls for Ji-goo to help. However, when Ji-goo arrives, Monssai is nowhere to be found.

As the story goes, the virus spreads. The virus is airborne, transmitted from human-to-human in suspended droplets in the air from coughing. Byung-woo, the first one to be infected, was admitted in the ER (Emergency Room) isolation section of a hospital. The doctors are freaked out, since they found that the patient was infected with an FUO (Flu of Unknown Origin) pathogen and was not treatable by conventional anti-flu drugs. Byung-woo's vitals continue to drop, as Dr. Kim, who happened to be working on the same hospital came into place and checks on the patient's belongings. They have found a video in his phone showing a shipping container with dead people that looks similar with Byung-woo's case. They asked Byung-woo's brother about the container, but he denied that he knows anything. Byung-ki, worried about his younger brother after hearing the alarm on the isolation room, went wild and fought his way into his brother's room. He found his brother breathless, with a face red of rash and blood.

More and more people are rushed to the hospital, positive with the same case. Emergency lines are overwhelmed by reports of people fainting of fever and coughing up blood. Doctors then discovered that it is indeed a highly contagious disease; a mutated strain of H5N1 avian flu that has no incubation period and leads to death within 36 hours after initial contact. The deadly virus is breaking out in Bundang, wreaking havoc; concerning the leaders of the district, the representatives of international organizations and the President of Korea himself. They made through a difficult decision of locking down Bundang and shutting down communications to and from the district shortly after informing the public about the outbreak.

As the concerned officials and doctors review the footage from Byung-woo's phone, they discovered that one man from the container has survived. They came up with the hypothesis that this man may have developed antibodies in his blood that is responsible for his survival from the deadly flu, so they looked for the survivor in search for the cure.

After lockdown, people are then brought to quarantine camps to be isolated. The protocol was simple; all of the people inside Bundang are considered potentially infected, so they have to be isolated from the uninfected. First, they look for visible symptoms such as rashes and cough. Second, they test the saliva for the presence of the pathogen. Anyone who returns positive with the results is brought to the Infected Quarantine Section of the camp which is the underground of a sports complex.

Among the people in the camp was Dr. Kim and Mi-reu. Dr. Kim lately realized that Mi-reu is infected and tried to keep her inside the Uninfected Quarantine Section, confident that she will not infect anyone because she has a mask. Ji-goo, who was also in the camp noticed that Dr. Kim is acting strange. They went for a talk and it is when Dr. Kim admitted to him that Mi-reu is indeed infected with the flu. Although Ji-goo is concerned for the health of the many, he is also concerned for Mi-reu and Dr. Kim, so when the health workers came to get #2066 (Mi-reu's call number) for being positive in the previous test, Ji-goo pretended to be #2066 to hide Mi-reu's condition.

The Infected Quarantine Zone turns out that it is not a place for treatment, but a place for the infected to wait for their death. Among these infected patients was Monssai, but the health workers got conscious for his case because had been in the Infected Zone for 48 hours after returning positive with the test, and still have a normal temperature. Lately, they realized that it was the survivor from the container that they have been looking for. Then, the health workers put him in the Infected Quarantine Zone. He was brought out of the Infected Zone immediately to the laboratory to have him examined by the doctors and to extract the antibodies responsible for his survival.

Dr. Kim immediately brought Mi-reu to the laboratory after knowing that the survivor was found. Out of despair, she wanted to inject some of Monssai's blood with her daughter even it is not yet proven to be an effective and safe way. Monssai was scared, he refused. But the moment he recognized Mi-reu's face even though it was pale and red with rash, far from what he saw before, he agreed to have some of his blood given to Mi-reu.

Other doctors arrived and saw that Dr. Kim brought an infected patient inside the lab. They broke through the door to get Mi-reu out. She tried to struggle for her daughter, but she was pacified by a single shot of a tranquilizer.


Seeing In-hae being shot, the mob rushes in front of her and Mir, forming a human shield. The Minister of Defense stands down and withdraws the operation. However, his American counterpart orders in an airstrike with American fighter jets. The South Korean president, who is informed that Mir is an antibody carrier, states that he has supreme command of capital defense, and puts out a call to ready surface-to-air missiles and to shoot down the approaching jets.

The SAMs lock on the jets, but the air attack is called off by an American general at the last second. An ambulance later brings Mir to a hospital where a vaccine and a cure are developed.

Ji-goo, Mir, and In-hae are later seen on their way to a holiday, with South Korea returning to normal.

Cast

English voice-over cast

References

  1. ↑ "Kamki (Flu) (2013)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-02-24.
  2. ↑ Ahn, Joo-hee (9 August 2013). "Flu spreads horror throughout Seoul suburb". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2013-08-17.
  3. ↑ Yun, Suh-young (11 August 2013). "The Flu to chill the summer". The Korea Times. Retrieved 2013-08-17.
  4. ↑ Song, Soon-jin (10 December 2013). "THE FLU Becomes 1st Korean Film to Receive Direct Distribution in UK". Korean Film Council. Retrieved 2014-03-13.
  5. ↑ Lee, Maggie (24 September 2013). "Film Review: Flu". Variety. Retrieved 2015-08-08.
  6. ↑ McCahill, Mike (21 November 2013). "Flu – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-08-08.
  7. ↑ Ho, Stewart (17 April 2012). "Soo Ae Cast Opposite Jang Hyuk in Cold". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  8. ↑ An, So-hyoun (9 July 2013). "Soo Ae Says Jang Hyuk is More Attractive at Noraebangs". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2013-07-12.
  9. ↑ Lee, Claire (19 August 2013). "Soo Ae: Best characters have iron fist in a velvet glove". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2013-08-23.
  10. ↑ Son, Bo-kyung (23 August 2013). "Interview: Soo Ae Praises The Flu, Jang Hyuk and Kim Sung Soo". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2013-08-27.
  11. ↑ "Jang Hyuk catches cinematic Flu". Korea JoongAng Daily. 22 February 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  12. ↑ Hong, Lucia (21 February 2012). "Jang Hyuk to play male lead in Kim Sung-soo film". 10Asia. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  13. ↑ Son, Bo-kyung (17 August 2013). "Interview: Jang Hyuk Shows His Trust in Director Kim Sung Soo and Soo Ae". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2013-08-17.
  14. ↑ "Spreading word of The Flu". Korea JoongAng Daily. 10 July 2013. Retrieved 2013-07-12.
  15. ↑ A Filipino student in Korea is in the cast of “The Flu” or 감기, which stars Jang Hyuk and Soo Ae..

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.