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August 12, 2022

Emergency Declaration

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Bisang Seoneon
Han Jae-rim - 2022
Well Go USA

Emergency Declaration might be best described as an updating of Airport and the series of films that followed fifty years ago. The title refers to the mandate that allows a pilot preferential treatment for landing in any airport when there no other safety options. The difference here is not only in making the cause for potential disaster more topical but also in taking advantage of current special effects technology that did not exist in the early 1970s.

For those familiar with South Korean film, this is a big budget film with several big name stars. By big, the film is shown on IMAX screens locally. Stateside viewers will have to settle for a very limited theatrical release and PVOD. Even casual viewers will probably recognize Song Kang-ho, the scheming patriarch of Parasite. Here Song has the equivalent of the George Kennedy role. Kennedy, for those unfamiliar with the Airport series, was the everyman airplane mechanic who saved the endangered flight in the first film, and appeared in the three sequels. Song appears as a tenacious police detective who uncovers the plot to kill all the passengers on a flight to Honolulu from Inchon.

There is also the sub-plot of the former pilot who reluctantly is called to action and is coincidentally on the same flight as his nemesis, the co-pilot. Also on board is the cop's wife. With those couple of exceptions there is little characterization of the passengers other than being subject to increasing panic as the film progresses. The villain, a very youthful scientist, is introduced early on. Seen at the airport first asking questions of a ticket agent followed by acting even more creepy with the former pilot and his young daughter, I had to wonder why no one bothered to call airport security. Real life is also avoided as no one is ever seen wearing a face mask, although a major plot point would suggest that is exactly what people would do in this situation.

The most impressive scene is when the plane is out of control. The set, part of a jet assembled on a rotating gimbal is used to advantage with unbuckled passengers flying out of their seats. Unlike its Hollywood antecedents, Emergency Declaration has a bittersweet resolution. The running time is 140 minutes which seems long, but answers the question, "With a flight that is being denied any place to land, what else can go wrong?"

Posted by Peter Nellhaus at August 12, 2022 05:47 AM