20131214: Action Review--Sector 7

Sector 7 (7 gwanggu)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Korean live action feature length film, 2011, NR, 101 minutes, action, adventure, horror.
2. IMDB: 4.6/10.0 from 1,278 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No Score yet', and 18% liked it from 238 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.1/5.0 from 74,572 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Ji-hoon Kim.
6. Starring: Ji-won Ha as Cha Hae-joon, Sung-kee Ahn as Lee Jeong-man, Ji-ho Oh as Kim Dong-soo, Seok Min as Yoon Hyeon-wu, Ye Ryeon-cha as Genetic researcher Park Hyeon-jeong.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The opening is set about twenty years in the past.  Divers encounter life at an unexpected depth.  Unfortunately, it was hostile, and it killed Cha Hae-joon's father.


2. In 2011, we switch to an oil drilling platform.  During one of the drills, odd fish (like opening sequence) come floating up.  The genetic researchers Park Hyeon-jeong  captures several of them and keeps them in a tank.  One of the more ignorant of the crew (Chi Sun) takes out one; it bites him, infects him, and gives him a deformed face.


3. The drillers encounter 100 dry holes, but they resolve to keep trying, and do strike oil.  Three months later, they are on maintenance mode.  While doing repairs, they lose one of the younger staff, Hyeon-wu.  A short time later, Hyeon-jeong falls to her death.  The crew blame Chi Sun.  Shortly thereafter, the on site staff physician is killed.


4. Of course, it's a dark and stormy sea.  Chi Sun has gone insane from the things he's seen.  Plus, there is a serious infestation in the rig, and some walking horrors that seem to be hungry.  Chi Sun gets lost in the shuffle.


5. The captain goes to investigate with his biggest gun.  Hae-joon goes with, then the whole remaining crew.  The captain guesses correctly that the monster has some sort of strong relationship to oil, and throws his ignited cigarette lighter in its mouth.  That worked for a bit.  The monster starts on fire, but the fire does not kill it.


6. Will anyone get out alive?  How did the captain know to throw the lighter? Why was there a geneticist on board to begin with?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary:  The lure of a vastly improved fuel goes very, very wrong.
2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Well done, except the monster, which was one of the more important characters of the film.


2. Sound: 10/10 No problems.


3. Acting: 5/10 The lead actress is a little weak.  The two comic relief characters were more of a detriment than anything else.  The monster was pretty bad.


4. Screenplay: 5/10 Some of the plot steps are hidden for a while, but it unfolds fairly well before the end.  I thought the final conflict with the monster went on too long.