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Directed by:
Joon-ho BongCinematography:
Kyung-pyo HongComposer:
Marco BeltramiCast:
Chris Evans, Kang-ho Song, Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer, John Hurt, Ewen Bremner, Alison Pill, Ed Harris, Ah-seong Ko, Kenny Doughty (more)Plots(1)
After a failed global-warming experiment, a postapocalyptic Ice Age has killed off nearly all life on the planet. All that remains of humanity are the lucky few survivors that boarded the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe, powered by a sacred perpetual-motion engine. A class system has evolved aboard the train, fiercely dividing its population-but a revolution is brewing. The lower-class passengers in the tail section stage an uprising, moving car-by-car up toward the front of the train, where the train's creator and absolute authority resides in splendor. But unexpected circumstances lie in wait for humanity's tenacious survivors. (Entertainment One)
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With Snowpiercer, Bong Joon-ho confirms his status as a maker of completely unique films who is able to brilliantly combine magnificent and intense spectacle with a unique vision and a supremely creative approach. Although Snowpiercer is based on the motifs of a French comic book, Bong took inspiration only from the source work’s basic premise, into which he inserted his own story (as in the case of his previous films, this time Bong is both the director and screenwriter; American screenwriter Kelly Masterson was responsible only for adapting the dialogue into English). Bong again builds the narrative on opposing principles, the combination of which gives rise to a unique, multifaceted work. In specific terms, we have a depressing Kafkaesque parable about our world and the individual caught in the gears of a rigid system presented using the blueprint of a seemingly Hollywood-style (but also Eisenstein-esque) tale of rebellion, conceived as a “blockbuster project with a devilishly unpredictable plot”. Together with the protagonists, the brilliant narrative gradually reveals to us the various levels of the hierarchy and the components that ensure the functioning of the microcosm, while concurrently and seemingly inadvertently giving us clues that much later will fit into the overall picture of a world founded on fear and anxiety. This world is in the form of a train, which, like a perpetual-motion machine, runs on tracks that do not have the form of a line with a beginning and an end, but an endless loop with regularly repeating cycles. Change is an illusion within this system, from which there is only one way out, but it is as intoxicating as a drug and as terrifying and final as the apocalypse. The common creative principle in Bong’s previous films, which we can describe as the subjugation of the direction of the original genre story through ambiguous and complex characters, is brought to its maximum level and meta-reflection in Snowpiercer – the ideal of the folk hero and rebellion against the establishment is gradually twisted as an increasingly complex view of the film’s world, of which the characters are integral and essential parts, is revealed to the viewers. _____ In the context of the narrative ideas contained in Snowpiercer, the story of the film’s distribution is paradoxical. What was supposed to be a magnificent story about how a distinctive filmmaker from South Korea created an international hit ultimately turned out to be a cruel slap in the face by the calculating Weinstein pigs who ruthlessly prevented any early international releases of the film (with the exception of France, where the rights had been sold earlier and where the film appeared at a few minor festivals and eventually on Blu-ray, which became the source of the copies that flooded the internet, thus significantly limiting the chance of earning box-office revenues in other countries, where the film is finally appearing after many months of haggling). Following this thorough reminder of where their place is in the global market, it cannot be expected that the disappointed director and the majority production company, CJ Entertainment, will attempt another project that goes beyond the Asian market and limited release abroad any time soon (more information on this affair is available here).
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Mutant, from the same director, was also incredibly hyped abroad, but for me it was an unwatchable, stupid piece of crap, so I went into Snowpiercer with some healthy apprehension. The result, however, blew me away. There are some shortcomings, like the almost video-game like special effects (when we see the train from the outside, or the frozen landscape), or the ending, which I personally would cut three minutes earlier, but I’m willing to forgive them. At first I was afraid that the premise of a post-apocalyptic train riot wouldn’t be enough for a two hour film. But it is. The passage from one car to the next is a little monotonous, but it’s saved by the dirty atmosphere, the sharp action and the excellent performances (especially Tilda Swinton’s, while I felt Octavia Spencer was the weakest link of the ensemble). About half-way through, we start getting a relentless barrage of directorial ideas, plot twists, brutal and unexpected deaths (the film doesn’t go easy on its stars, in this regard Joon-ho Bong is quite uncompromising), brutality and slightly philosophical thoughts, and I was purring in satisfaction. I have a weak spot for dystopian sci-fi and this movie checked all the boxes. And, as a Czech viewer, I was happy to hear that one sentence in Czech, and the Czech names in the credits. The film was made in Barrandov Studios :)
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Some time ago this train just blew past me, but when the Oscar buzz was revolving around its director a few years later, I tried to find out what was going on at Barrandov at that time. And it's a surprising gem that's sometimes a thriller, sometimes an existential drama, and sometimes even a calm action RPG. I love that feeling when I have no idea what might happen the next minute, and when no explanation is too far-fetched to be true. And believe me, once a viewer explores the fan theory that Snowpiercer takes place in the same world as Willy Wonka, there is no turning back.
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Those who approach Snowpiercer as a dissolute B-movie might eventually have a good time with it. Anyone looking for a seriously conceived dystopia will be burned badly. My only star is more related to the fact that the film betrayed one of the most important principles I demand from the world of cinema. I have already written in my profile that from the fictional film world, no matter how fantastic it may be, I require solid logical foundations and its protagonists must move meaningfully within it. The director and screenwriter in-one did not bother to build any logical foundations at all. Everything is subordinated to the momentary effect and the next action scene. The film is a pulp crap, but it has remarkably decent casting, and Joon-ho Bong is not to be discarded as a craftsman. Occasionally, a spark of interest flashed for me in scenes that were obviously inspired by Terry Gilliam's darkly grotesque world and his famous films Brazil and 12 Monkeys (typical of this is the speech of the minister in front of the crowd of wretches from the lowest class). But those were just timid flashes that had no continuity, so in the end, my overall impression is only 25%.
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A co-production pseudo-Hollywood blockbuster with a message? In places, Snowpiercer is OK (exciting, surprising), in
places ridiculous like the later Shyamalan movies (some characters) or this year’s Hollywood flop Transcendence. A
weird science-fiction hybrid with a stellar cast.
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