ASHFALL Korean Movie Review


8/10

 A volcano on Baekdu Mountain which is situated on the Chinese-Korean border is about to erupt. There will be several explosions until the final one that will obliterate both North and South Korea. The only way to stop it is to detonate a nuclear device from within one of the tunnels near mountain. Korean secret services cook up a crazy plan to steal a nuke from their North Korean neighbour, using the help of a North Korean double agent (Korean superstar Byung-Hun Lee) and an inexperienced South Korean commander who has to reluctantly accept the mission when all his colleagues die in the plane crash. Our protagonists will have to face the North Korean army, American special forces, conflicted politicians of South Korea and last but not least - the volcano itself, with each tremor unleashing deadly destruction that can put a stop to the mission at any moment. 

ASHFALL doesn't waste time throwing you into the middle of the action, kickstarting with the giant spectacle of distraction in the streets of Seoul, and getting bigger wilder and more audacious with every moment. But its heart is in the right place. Combining many genres, such as buddy comedy, disaster movie, spy movie and heart wrenching drama it is a unique film that works with surprising effectiveness, constantly changing and evolving. 

In action films it is the dramatic angle that usually suffers most, but it is covered here neatly, as the friendship between the two leads builds up to comradery and loyalty with believable ease. The action is relentless, and each time the characters get into "hot water", the volcano doesn't stay silent, adding more danger and destruction, which hypes up the scene - a clever trick of the script that should be used more often. 

There's not much bad to say about ASHFALL apart from the story being completely unbelievable, but it is action entertainment at its best. Watch it now before it is remade in Hollywood.

Comments

  1. Unknown29 May 2020 at 01:27

    There are kots of highlights for the near apocalyptic action genre lovers, but the story and plot are mostly undeveloped and pretty unhinged most of the time. the cataclysmic phases made on vfx and cgi are merely fine, but the way the human story is told its extremely mediocre and a very big nuclear wasted anti climax of a volcanic meltdown. Good production, average acting, terrible story and geopolitical disaster, thinks the grumpy old man, but its still a recommend Ashfall (2019).

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