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)VOD (4)
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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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Reviews (17)
A famous film response to Aldiss's classic Non Stop. How does one conjure an adventurous and unpredictable universe from claustrophobic space? Divide the space into fragments, create each fragment as a closed ecosystem and connect them with Bong's poetics, which oscillate on the edge of cabaret stylization and (post) industrial dystopia. Despite the certain anachronistic nature of the metaphor of the eternal machine that devours the bodies of the proletariat, Snowpiercer is the best possible return to the ethos of classical dystopian sci-fi. A film that holds up where Elysium failed due to excess of theses. Excellent performances by Evans, Harris and of course the clown Song. For me, it is definitely a ride in first class, which is not brought down by the weaker "extruder" effects and the fact that Bong has set the bar in mutating genres so high in the past that it probably won't surpass it any time soon. [85%]
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The Metropolis of the new century. Absolutely amazing and unbeatable! From start to finish we follow the evolution of civilization from simple foundations to science, education, quality, luxury and ultimate demise. This film really has style. Every scene has charm and is well thought out. There are breathtaking visuals, amazing action, awesome pacing, perfect acting performances (Tilda Swinton went all out here!) and most importantly lots of plot twists. The unpredictability and originality makes this film an orgasmic experience. Action 8/10, Story 9/10, Gore 6/10, Atmosphere 10/10, Visuals 10/10.
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Once I ignore a whole lot of nonsense (for example, the fact that I couldn’t technically imagine the train or what the purpose of the people at the end of the train was), it’s actually a pretty decent sci-fi that has a hint of murder-movie atmosphere until the very end. However, it’s still an interesting idea, a good execution and a surprise in the form of a single Czech sentence said by some Asian woman.
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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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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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