Deranged (2012)

This picture was frustrating to watch. The chasing-around/in-pursuit-of element stretched itself thin as any episode of Looney Tunes. No gore, no frights, nothing eerie or atmospheric. Just the live action equivalent of a cartoon rife with ridiculous anxiety. I gave this a 4 instead of a 1 because of the high production value and solid acting all around.The core story, while outlandish, is interesting, but the execution of this film just left me exhausted. It lacked grace.Avoid until you've run out of contagion films to watch.South Korea has been cranking out some real gems lately. This, however, isn't one of them.

"Deranged" is an ecological thriller from South Korea with a fair amount of action and a few drama elements as well. Fans of movies such as "The Host" or "Tidal Wave" will also enjoy this one.The movie tells us the story of two brothers who don't talk to each other anymore since a tragic incident in the past. The intelligent Jae- Hyeok is a disgruntled sales executioner in a pharmaceutical company and has to do a few very degrading jobs to make his wife and two children live a modest live. His brother Jae-Pil is a cop with a bad reputation but a few good connections who is in a relationship with a doctor. When a mysterious disease breaks out in the country, the wife and children of Jae-Hyeok are among the one million infected people. The two brothers need to work together and reconcile and soon realize that the catastrophe has something to do with parasites living in water who nest in human bodies and end up killing them by drowning them or breaking out of their stomaches. As investigations progress, they realize that the infections didn't break out by pure coincidence and are about to discover a conspiracy. Meanwhile, the health of Jae-Hyeok's wife and children decreases and the two brothers desperately need to get their hands on an obscure and rare medicament that could save them.This pandemic movie convinces with a very solid acting, a well done cinematography with a few well done but not overwhelming special effects and an entertaining pace. There really isn't much wrong with the movie but I thought that the little twist in this movie was too generic and predictable as one feels that one has seen this kind of story line a couple of times before in Hollywood. Towards the end, the two brothers run a little bit too much around to find the medicament and the concept gets just a little bit repetitive. Apart of that, a few more scenes could have been spend on the relationship between the two brother but the movie rather turns out to focus on the sometimes difficult relationship between the father and his wife and children that is very well done and touching.Those who like pandemic thrillers and modern South Korean cinema should purchase this film and will be well entertained. It's nothing groundbreaking or new but the film is on the same high level as the Hollywood movies of the same kind inspired by the novels of Robin Cook, Michael Crichton or Stephen King for example.

Thousands of people have died and the company who has the cure is refusing to give it up for free. And the prime minister give them the money that they want because that's capitalism and you cannot give up on capitalism, because where would the world then wind up? Well, it would wind up in decency and those who want to profit from other people's misery deserve very slow and painful torture to death - that's plain for anyone who can think just a little. I guess this film is done a little with tongue in cheek. That those who would not give up the medicine for free are also those who spread the disease comes as no surprise because if you can do one bad thing then you can do the other. There's only one place for capitalists and that is jail together with all other thieves. Incidentally, it's a well known dilemma if you are allowed to steal in order to save lives and the answer is that it is no dilemma - the person who would not give up a cure for free is the person who not only steals from humanity but who also murders. That is why that everything that has to do with medicine has to be state owned and free for all people in society - only brainwashed Americans will not understand this.

I wasn't expecting much from this Korean horror movie, but it turned out to be a little more entertaining. The movie starts comically with our protagonist Jaehyk who slaves on behalf of his failing pharmaceutical company and due to his bad choices the future looks bleak. We are introduced to his cute wife and two children for whom he no longer has much time or energy for. The horror aspect begins with people behaving abnormally and some ending up dead and floating in rivers. After that all hell breaks loose and Jaehyk has to start looking out for his family.This movie is very similar to 2011 pandemic movie Contagion but with a lot more gore, much of the story dealing with how politicians and scientist deal with the disaster, posing a lot of dilemma decisions that has to be made. The other half is dealing with Jaehyk racing against time to save his family. I thought the acting and the chemistry of the family was superb and perhaps the main thing that saves this movie. But the plot seemed to me to be fresh and the pandemic is quite interesting. Unfortunately the movie doesn't seem to have the Hollywood budget and it shows, and it looks like a TV movie most of the time. There are not many movies that scare me and this certainly didn't but it was suspenseful with many race against time situations.One thing that I absolutely hated about the movie is that they reveal what the pandemic is before even the half mark, after that it is pretty easy to predict why it is happening, even though the characters seem oblivious to it.But despite its faults I can see a Hollywood remake happening, whether that's in your opinion good or bad. I actually think it would be nice, since I think one of the main downfalls of this movie is low budget.Pros: Suspenseful, interesting pandemic, cute main actors, interesting difficult dilemma situations, deep moments, OK social commentary.Cons: Too long, stupid main plot resolution, TV movie like, not scary.