Movie Review: #Alive

    Locked in an apartment. No food, no water, no weapons, and zombies surrounding your building. Would you survive? Oh Joon-woo, a gamer in Seoul, South Korea faced that exact situation in the Netflix original movie #Alive. Released in South Korea on June 24, 2020, and worldwide on September 8, 2020, it quickly grew to be in the top 10 watched movies on Netflix US at the moment.  #Alive was directed by IL Cho, who also directed movies such as August (2011) and Jin (2011). Yoo Ah-in who plays Oh Joon-woo and Park Shin-Hye who portrays Kim Yoo-bin deliver incredible performances in this movie, they showcase true emotion through fear and bravery which makes this movie worthy of watching over and over. 

     Oh Joon-woo starts his day alone in his apartment that is shared with his parents and sister. As he starts to join a live stream people start to notice some weird changes and Oh Joon-woo proceeds to turn on his tv. He is flustered by an emergency notification from his phone and screams coming from his hallway. A virus, more specifically a zombie virus, is quickly spreading beyond Seoul to a national scale. He decides to open up his door to get a more clear understanding of what is happening but is pushed by an incoming neighbor. Oh Joon-woo must act quickly as his neighbor slowly starts showing symptoms of turning into one of the zombies. 

    Stuck in his apartment, worried about his family members, he starts to run out of food, and to his surprise, the water is shut off in his apartment building. He sends a rescue request on his social media platform, but all hope is lost as there is no progress or response. Having to deal with no food, no hope, and not to mention zombies, he turns over to the thought of suicide. As he was about to end his life, he saw a laser pointing right at him. In disbelief, he sees another survivor named Yoo-bin. Both Yoo-bin and him help each other to stay alive. Having so many near-death encounters, the two of them must fight to survive and live another day.

    Having to deal with a zombie apocalypse, there is no question something like that changes a person. Oh Joon-woo only enforces that idea. We see him progress to the independent and courageous young man he ends up as. When the movie first started, he’s viewed as your average gamer. Scared at the thought of a zombie apocalypse (Which I obviously do not blame him because like come on… it’s a zombie apocalypse) he switches his views once he meets Yoo-bin, who brings out the best in him. As if she was the reason he was able to pull through and survive. 

   One major difference in his character is the thought he had about suicide. As the movie was winding down, there was a period of time where Yoo-bin was desperate to die. She asked Oh Joon-woo for help. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t seem to bring himself to do it. If we recall, suicide was once in his mind too, so why was it so hard for him to fulfill someone else’s wish?

   No matter what the reason was, they delivered a great action/terror movie to everyone everywhere on Netflix. Overall, this is a great choice and I would 100% recommend you watch it.