#Alive is a zombie film directed by Cho Il-hyung in South Korea. Starring Yoo Ah-in and Park Shin-hye, it is based on Matt Naylor’s 2019 script Alone, who co-adapted his script with Cho.
The film revolves around the battle for survival of a live streamer video game as he is forced to sit alone during a zombie outbreak at his apartment in Seoul.
#Alive had a theatrical release in Korea where is it was released as a Netflix Original worldwide.
#Alive Movie Cast And Characters
- Yoo Ah-in as Oh Joon-woo, a gamer who struggles to survive a zombie outbreak. He almost hangs himself after hearing his family was killed by zombies, but he finds new hope after knowing there is another survivor called Yoo-bin.
- Park Shin-hye as Kim Yoo-bin, a mysterious lady who helps Joon-woo survive. She frequently kills zombies who trespass her house using her hand axe and booby-trapped door.
- Lee Hyun-wook as Lee Sang-chul, the infected tenant whom Joon-woo lets in.
- Oh Hye-won as the policewoman who is killed by the infected.
- Jin So-yeon as Elena KimJeon Bae-soo as a masked man who saves Joon-woo and Yoo-bin but wants to feed them to his zombified wife.
- Lee Chae-kyung as the zombified wife of the masked man
#Alive Movie Plot
Oh Joon-woo, a player trying to survive an epidemic of zombies. He almost hangs himself after discovering that his family has been killed by zombies, but after learning that there is another survivor named Yoo-bin, he discovers fresh hope.
#Alive Movie Review
Oh Joon-woo is alone in his family’s apartment when a mysterious disease that causes those infected to attack and eat uninfected people breaks out in the news and around him. From his balcony, Joon-woo sees a panicked crowd fleeing and being attacked. When he opens the door to the hallway, a neighbor barges in. The man begs to stay but succumbs to infection and attacks Joon-woo.
Joon-woo pushes him back out and locks the door. He then receives messages from his parents telling him they are safe.
Joon-woo blocks his front door with the fridge and posts a rescue request on social media. And does everything he can, like stocking up food and making arrangements to keep himself alive and safe.
Joon-woo a attempts suicide after hearing his family might have been killed by zombies, he was going to attempt suicide by hanging but manages to free himself when he sees the laser pointer’s light moving around his apartment.
Kim Yoo-bin, a survivor living in the opposite apartment, signals to him and later tries to set up a zip line to send him food.
After they started to bond, they eventually meet up, then they ended into a stranger’s apartment who also wanted to kill them and feed them to his zombie wife. But they somehow made their way out of there and finally got rescued.
This film shows us how it felt in the beginning of this global pandemic, the loneliness and isolation and so many people attempted suicide because there was no hope and everything was falling apart.
This is a good film but don’t go on all that Google reviews it will confuse you, this film got good stars and reviews only because of the cast who probably has a huge fan base.
The film lacks a lot of plot there’s not much detail, like how the zombie outbreak took place and how can this be ended nothing really that much interesting. But overall it’s watchable.
#Alive Movie Critical Reception
According to Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86% and an average rating of 6.59/10, based on 21 reviews.
Marian Phillips from Screen Rant wrote, “#Alive accurately captures the same panic, fear, uncertainty, loneliness, and isolation experienced by many during the pandemic’s early days. By taking a concept unfamiliar to the sub-genre, #Alive transforms how zombie movies can be handled as well as providing an exploration of the different circumstances individuals find themselves when dealing with the apocalypse.”
The New York Times’ Speaking of a Korean Movie, Korean review aggregator Naver Movie Database, the film holds an approval rating of 7.09 from critic reviews.
The Movie Culture Synopsis
To sum up our thoughts, Elisabeth Vincentelli of The New York Times stated, “#Alive is a nifty little thriller that proves that you can always find signs of life in the most undead of genres. And the finale, far-fetched as it is, suggests that even a society atomized by isolation can find a connection”.
#Alive is a zombie thriller based on the original script “#Alone” of Hollywood screenwriter Matt Naylor, who worked on the American documentary series Small Business Revolution: Main Street and the short film What It’s Like.
Director Cho Il-hyung who is also known as Il Cho; and Naylor adapted the screenplay together for the Korean market. A stellar marketing campaign where the they created an Instagram account for Oh Joon-woo was created to promote the film.
The film is available to watch on Netflix.
