“Ashfall” Theatrical Poster
Director: Lee Hae-Jun
Co-director: Kim Byung-Seo
Cast: Lee Byung-Hun, Ha Jung-Woo, Ma Dong-Seok, Jeon Hye-Jin, Bae Suzy, Lee Sang-Won
Running Time: 130 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Korean cinema went for the disaster movie double in 2019, with the low-key Exit offering up a brisk comedic take on the genre, one that saw the residents of Seoul looking to escape a steadily rising cloud of poisonous gas. On the other hand, Ashfall opted for the more traditional approach to the disaster epic, complete with the bombast of having the entire Korean peninsula threatened by the eruption of the long dormant Baekdu Mountain (which is notably the literal translation of the Korean title) in North Korea. If anything, the volcano disaster movie is certainly ripe to be re-visited, coming more than 20 years since Hollywood dabbled with the same volcanic threats in 1997’s double whammy of Dante’s Peak and Volcano.
Almost as if to say that such an impending disaster wouldn’t be enough for one director to handle, Ashfall comes with two. Sharing directorial duties are Kim Byeong-seo and Lee Hae-joon, and while neither are known primarily as directors, they’re also no strangers to the film industry. Byeong-seo is an established cinematographer, in recent years lensing the likes of Take Point and the Along With the Gods flicks. Ashfall marks his sophomore feature in the director’s chair, after also co-helming 2013’s Korean remake of Hong Kong’s Eye in the Sky – Cold Eyes – alongside Cho Ui-seok. Hae-joon is mainly known as a scriptwriter, having contributed his talents to everything from Arahan to the Korean remake of Japan’s Golden Slumber. Ashfall marks his 4th outing as a director, having helmed 2006’s Like a Virgin (which he co-directed with Lee Hae-yeong), 2009’s Castaway on the Moon, and 2014’s My Dictator.
Perhaps most importantly though, both have worked together before, with Byeong-seo being the cinematographer on both of Hae-joon’s solo directorial outings, Castaway on the Moon and My Dictator. Backed by Korea’s leading visual effects house, Dexter, Ashfall gets straight down to business as we meet a bomb disposal expert, played by Ha Jung-woo (Tunnel, The Handmaiden), partaking in a scene that will feel familiar to anyone who’s seen Hong Kong’s Shockwave from a couple of years prior. The initial few minutes play almost like a checklist of every disaster movie character cliché in the book – it’s Jung-woo’s last job and he’s due to be discharged that same day, plus his wife is heavily pregnant (and just to top it off, he’s forgotten about their latest check-up at the hospital). Thankfully before any broader cinema cliches can be heaped on, Jung-woo’s drive to the hospital is disturbed by a powerful earthquake that hits Seoul.
It’s a kinetic sequence that has Jung-woo both out-driving and out-running a cityscape that begins to literally crumble all around him (it turns out Seoul doesn’t have too many structurally sound buildings if an earthquake hits), only undone by some variable visual effects that sometimes don’t look fully rendered. As the title indicates, it’s soon identified that the earthquake was caused by Baekdu Mountain erupting, and the government are forced to turn to an American-Korean geologist for help, one whose theories about a potential eruption have never been taken seriously.
Played by a cast against type Ma Dong-seok (he doesn’t throw a single punch!), he brings a likeable bumbling charm to his character, one who just wants to head back to the U.S. His theory which has been shunned for so long involves the fact that the first eruption is just a small one, with an even bigger one on the way, and the only way to mitigate it is to set off a nuclear-powered bomb in one of the underground mines close to the mountain. The idea is that the bomb would blow up the largest volcanic chamber before it causes a mega eruption, dissipating the pressure inside, and averting disaster. But with the first eruption already done, the clock is ticking, so the main focus becomes about a reluctant Ha Jung-woo leading his team into North Korea to sneakily acquire a nuclear-powered bomb, set it off in a mine, and attempt to get back to the South in one piece. The Dirty Dozen had it easy!
It’s when Ashfall turns into a ‘men on a mission’ movie, which it doesn’t take long to do, that it begins to truly entertain. The South Korean government have a double agent in the North played by Lee Byung-hun (The Man Standing Next, A Single Rider) who knows all of the key locations, however his cover has been blown and he’s being kept in a prison, the fact he’s still alive after being exposed indicating that he may no longer be able to be trusted. But with no other choice than to work with him, Jung-woo and his teams first job is to break Byung-hun out and convince him to help them on their mission. More so than any of the special effects, the greatest strength Ashfall has going for it is the chemistry between Jung-woo and Byung-hun. As 2 of Korea’s biggest stars when it comes to leading men, and the first time for them to share the screen together, the constantly simmering tension between the pair is never less than entertaining.
It also results in Ashfall feeling more like an action movie than a disaster flick for most of its runtime, with only the occasional cutaway to Dong-seok’s character typing away in front of a monitor, attempting to increase his plan’s chance of success to be more than 3%, acting as a reminder of what’s at stake. What it does have in common with the disaster genre though is an impressive cast. Outside of the key trio of Jung-woo, Byung-hun, and Dong-seok, it’s Bae Suzy (The Sound of a Flower, Architecture 101) who has the most to do as Jung-woo’s pregnant wife. Although her range is rather limited, luckily her role here is largely relegated to one of damsel in distress – whether it’s staying afloat after a tsunami engulfs the Han River, or attempting to evacuate in a surging crowd – the sense of danger remains palpable due to circumstance rather than her performance.
If anything I only wish we saw more of Jeon Do-yeon (Beasts Clawing at Straws, The Shameless), who clocks in barely 5 minutes screen time cameoing as Byung-hun’s drug addled wife. Re-uniting with Byung-hun after their roles together in the underwhelming Memories of the Sword and underseen The Harmonium in My Memory, there’s something appealing about the pairing of them in a disaster flick. Somebody must have thought the same thing, as she’ll have a more prominent role opposite Byung-hun in Emergency Declaration, an aviation disaster movie that’s set to be released this year. Other notable names onboard for the ride include Jeon Hye-jin (The Beast, The Merciless) as a government official, the gravelly voiced Lee Kyung-young (Monstrum, The Prison) as a military general, and Choi Kwang-il (Inseparable Bros, Seven Years of Night) as the president.
There’s a certain cynicism towards the U.S. once their military forcefully enter the picture, a tone which has become increasingly prevalent in Korean cinema since the Trump era. There’s a similar feel in Steel Rain, and like there in Ashfall it once again comes down to the South and North working together to solve a problem, with American intervention portrayed as a hinderance rather than a help. It’s an interesting shift in attitude towards their presence on the Korean peninsula, one that’s come through particularly strongly in recent years, and it’ll be interesting to see if the approach continues post-Trump. Unfortunately Dong-seok is left with a clunker of a line at the end, when his U.S. loving character returns to Korea a few years later, and states that he thinks he’ll settle there. I’m sure it went down well locally though.
While bookended with typical disaster movie genre tropes and cliched scripting, the rollicking number of daring escapes, shootouts, vehicular chases, and volcanic mayhem that takes place in-between serve to make Ashfall an entertaining time at the movies. With Ha Jung-woo and Lee Byung-hun anchoring proceedings, their combined screen presence means the special effects work (which improves significantly from the initial scene) never overshadows the human element of the story. Undemanding entertainment it may be, but in the case of Ashfall that’s far from a criticism, delivering a movie that strikes just the right balance between action, spectacle, and drama.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7.5/10
