If you have never seen a film by Bong Joon-ho then you are missing out on one of the most unique voices out in the world of cinema today. My first taste of his work came in the form of
The Host which completely caught me by surprise for being original, darkly funny, and having social commentary all while being a great monster film! The film was so good that I put Bong Joon-ho on my watch list and started going through his filmography. Then we come to present day where it feels like I have been waiting forever to finally see his newest film
Snowpiercer. It has been tough waiting after hearing so much about the film, the reviews and then the controversy over the Weinstein's trying to re-edit the film, but luckily the time had finally come where this film was in theaters and we go to see the edit that Bong Joon-ho wanted to release. What also makes
Snowpiercer exciting is that this is Bong Joon-ho's first English speaking film and first big budget feature. While more money and a bigger release might seem like a good thing, that isn't always an equation for success. Sometimes when a filmmaker tries to cross over to bigger films, they lose what made them such great filmmakers in the first place. Just look at what happened with German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and 2010's
The Tourist. So I was hopeful for two things to come out of
Snowpiercer, that Bong Joon-ho would be able to keep his voice and style that made his previous films memorable and fascinating and also that we could see another wonderful original film in a summer filled with sequels and rebranded old known products. Read on to see my thoughts on
Snowpiercer
The year is 2014 where an experiment to end global warming causes a new ice age across the Earth, freezing everything insight to deadly below freezing temperatures. Fast forward 17 years and the last known humans alive left on the planet Earth are left to survive on the Snowpiercer, a 20 car train that runs on a self sustaining engine that travels around the world all year round. At the back of the train lives the lower class, where the leaders and high class of the train have stuffed most of the population in cramped living conditions. The lower class survives on protein blocks and nothing else but it seems that the back of the train has had enough. Led by Curtis (Chris Evans), a protege of Gilliam (John Hurt), the lower class rises up and starts to slowly head their way up the train hoping to reach the engine room and take the upper hand. As the upper class fights back, Curtis and the rest of the back of the train must fight their way forward before their are forced to the back of the train or even worse killed.
