Showing @ Cineworld, Edinburgh, Sun 22 Jun & Sat 28 Jun
Bong Joon-ho / South Korea / 2013 / 126 mins
The newest film from Korean director Bong Joon-ho is literally fascism on wheels, with those wheels being on the rails of a post-apocalyptic train journey. Set in the near future on a frozen planet earth, all of surviving humanity now live on a locomotive which travels on a never-ending loop. Mirroring our own society’s stratification the lumpen proles occupy the back carriages, whilst the lotus eaters take the front. It’s left to Chris Evans’ Curtis to lead the underclass in a revolution to take the engine.
Evans is ably supported by Jamie Bell (sporting an “oirish” accent) and three-fifths of John Hurt. They are joined in their quest by Kang ho-Song as a drug addled security expert and Ah sung-Ko as his spirited daughter. Tilda Swinton makes a wonderfully eccentric villain – a Yorkshire Cruella DeVille – and provides the closest thing to comic relief. You could almost find yourself rooting for her if she wasn’t an utter psychopath. The social commentary is a little heavy handed, but as a dystopian action film Snowpiercer is exciting, action packed, violent and fun. Graphic novel adaptations often feel diluted and lacking the rawness of their source, but Bong has kept the claustrophobic intensity and managed to keep this thrill ride on track.
Showing as part of Edinburgh International Film Festival 2014