#Alive (2020)

In the first half, the KMovie is actually a one-man show. And that, I think, is the strongest part

"#Alive" is a variety on hip zombie stories. First things first: it doesn't have much new to offer in this respect - zombies as a plague that spreads fear and terror, a horde that you want to shake off or destroy, like disgusting, annoying vermin. Well, that's not why I would recommend this KMovie.

I also don't think that you have to overstrain the reference to the Covid pandemic and the sometimes grueling current lockdown experiences that come with it.

Even fans of the horror genre won't be really happy with "#Alive", because "horrifying" can surely be done even better.

So why am I mentioning the KMovie here? The script revolves around surviving in an almost hopeless situation. However, the focus is not mainly on the action, but rather on the quiet moments in which the protagonist is ruthlessly thrown back on himself. There he is alone with himself and his inability, facing his insufficient survival skills, his loneliness and hopelessness ... and finally the desire to leave this world.

Oh Joon-woo isn't a born hero - perhaps he was trying to be in the day-long, night-long computer games, with his joystick in hand. But then the Internet connection is gone, no water supply, no food, no one can be reached. The self-chosen isolation in his room with his virtual game world, which has shaped him to this day, is one thing. Real isolation with real threats and no virtual team is something completely different. It's about that juxtaposition and the painful process of waking up to a NOW that's so different from the gaming world. Ultimately, the impulse comes from outside, which helps him to venture out of his safe cocoon into the real and thus truely threatening world.

However, the movie isn´t anti-technology. On the contrary, in playful creativity technical gimmicks, old and new, give the story new impetus again and again.

In the first half, the KMovie is actually a one-man show. And that, I think, is the strongest part. It's never boring. Actor Yoo Ah-in once again uses the chance to show what he's made of. In this way, the viewers accompany him through his very personal Hall of Pain, and there he hardly omits any physical form of expression. For this he has meanwhile been awarded the Cine 21 Award for best actor. After almost half the distance he gets support from Park Shin-hye, who embodies a character who pursues a completely different survival strategy - namely, she has one, even if she also reaches her limits with it. As is well known, more than one person form a group and a group develops its own dynamics, which can do more than each individual on their own. Here too. Both of them grow together. Heroes are rarely born as such...

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Just finished watching this movie tonight, and I’m pretty much satisfied. The story was just like any ordinary zombie-movie, but this movie had this little pinch of romance, friendship(?) and also something metaphorical about the COVID-19 going on nowadays.

The zombies here were much more scarier than the zombies in Train to Busan, but I think the zombies’ gestures were much more realistic in TtB. But, what I love about this movie is the happy ending! Who hates happy endings, am I right? ;) Plus points for that!

Overall, a 9/10, very thrilling and super fun to watch! ⭐️

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#Alive starts off as a very slow zombie movie, which you need to have patience for. By the middle of it, I would say the plot picks up. Closer to the end, it also becomes predictable to the outcome that would happen. Sadly this movie was also very disappointing because it doesn't really focus on killing the zombies. I feel like it mainly focuses on the main characters and on Joon-woo as a person along with the zombies.

The acting was really good, and everybody acted their characters well. I also really loved the cast that was chosen. I just wasn't really fond of Joon-woo's character and his strategy throughout the movie. As for the Music, there was only one song that I remember. I feel like it fit the scenes, but it didn't really have the most impact and wasn't the most memorable song that they picked.

I probably wouldn't rewatch this movie unless I was forced to, but it was very different from what I anticipated it to be. I would consider this movie to be decent to watch, but don't get your hopes up from the trailer as I did.

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More focused on the characters

Unlike other zombie movies that I have watched, #Alive doesn't focus so much on the actual zombies. This movie's main focus is on the characters, especially Joon Woo since he's actually the only character we know of for a period of time. This makes the movie boring if you're more of an action interested person, but interesting if you focus the most on character personalities. It also doesn't focus on what caused the outbreak, nor on finding the cure. It's almost as if it's trying to teach us how to survive if something similar happens.

Even though I've seen people hate on Park Shin Hye, which I feel like is unjustified. Both her and Yoo Ah In did a great job portraying the main characters. And the main characters aren't portrayed as this kind of superhumans that live without struggles, we see them struggle multiple times, and that's what makes them better.

The zombies, even though not shown as much as in other movies, were equally as scary as the ones in Train To Busan. But that's really the only thing that is similar between these two movies. If you're comparing the two, don't. If you want to watch this because you're expecting something like Train To Busan, maybe you shouldn't watch it because this movie is nothing like that.

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Had too much expectations for this..

Watching the trailer gave me pretty high expectations for this film, but unfortunately, after watching the entire thing, it did not meet them- at least for me. I couldn't help but compare the film to Train to Busan so it was pretty lackluster in comparison. I was hoping it'd be the next Train to Busan, but nope, not even close.

Story:
It started off with a pretty good introduction with our male lead waking up to a zombie apocalypse and does his utmost to survive in his apartment while surrounded by zombies. There was even good dramatic BGM for scenes where the zombies attacked, but there were only a handful of those exciting scenes scattered through the film. Besides those short moments, the film had too much filler scenes, creating too much silence and resulting with me getting bored and losing interest.

Also, there were a few points in the film that did not make sense, even in the fake reality of zombies. Why did the two leads jump out of their apartments instead of climbing up to the roof? Why did the man tie up his wife-turned-zombie and try to sacrifice Park Yoo Bin to her? Not only that, I still don't understand how Park Yoo Bin managed to survive being locked up in that room with the zombie wife without getting even a single scratch. It felt like all logic flew out the window at that point of the film.

Ultimately, the ending was pretty anti-climatic with a lousy rescue. The male lead kept posting his status on social media but the story line hardly ever followed up on that and just carelessly tied it back up at the end.

Cast:
Yoo Ah In and Park Shin Hye did a good job with their roles, but nothing that really stood out? Yoo Ah In's character was more funny, offering some comic relief during the dark moments, but other than that, I don't have any thing else to say.

Production:
The special effects and CGI were very well done though, so I do give the production team an applause for that. I was very disturbed and creeped out by the makeup of the zombies with all the blood. It was on the same level as the zombies in Train to Busan.

I would say to watch this film if you're fans of Yoo Ah In/Park Shin Hye and are curious of this new zombie film, but don't expect too much for the thrills.

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A bit lackluster...

**HOPEFULLY THIS IS ALL SPOILER-FREE**

Believe me when I say I watched this without comparing it to any of the other countless zombie movies out there. I didn't even try holding high expectations while watching. I genuinely went into it for the actors, but unfortunately even they were not enough for me to be satisfied.

Story:
I think the most disappointing part was with the story. Even though most zombie movies do not have complex stories, most at least have some type of lesson to take away, yet I didn't get anything. In turn, this made watching feel a bit empty. What is the story they are trying to tell? Why are they telling it? What is the purpose of this story? I couldn't really find any of these answers besides them wanting to show off zombie CGI and action scenes. The only possible messages I could scrape off were very minimal at best. Nothing really appealed to any type of emotion or frankly even any purpose. When it did try to appeal to emotion, I feel like none of the scenes were well-paced or set up well enough to have that emotional impact it should. Either that could be due to the pacing, or maybe even the...

Characters:
** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS idk tbh **
Additionally with the story, the characters didn't get very much development, at least to me. They never got from point A to point B in their own personal growth. They didn't even have enough scenes showing their friendship growth either. Besides maybe a few conversations here and there, they never entirely established a foundation for me to care enough about either individually or together. It was a bit of a shame because of how much I love both Ah-in and Shin-hye. Yes, I did feel that sense of dread and fear when they faced dire situations, but it wasn't more fear FOR the characters, rather more towards the imagery. Honestly, I think out of all aspects, the characters may be the one I am most disappointed from. Because they have no real reasonings or development, it's incredibly difficult to connect to them in any way to feel any emotional impact. I would even have loved some kind of backstory to either too. Maybe a scene where they sit down to talk about what their lives were like, what kind of regrets they have, what they want to live for, who they want to live for, etc, but none of that ever happened :((

Music:
This will be short because I can't remember any of the music. Nothing really stood out, as they were most likely all just instrumentals.

Acting:
Amazing in every way. No complaints. They're both amazing in general and this work was no exception. Ah-in portrays the sort-of-dorky, sometimes comedic, sometimes sad Junu extremely well. I could feel the agony, fear, relief, and joy as he went through it all. Shin-hye portrayed the skilled, seemingly cold-hearted, Yubin equally as well. Although the characters themselves were disappointing to me, their acting was phenomenal. Although emotional scenes may have been too short with too little impact, I could still feel all their tears. Seriously great stuff.

Zombies/CGI:
This was probably my favorite part about the movie. What's a zombie movie without the zombies? The make up was incredible, the CGI was fantastic, the choreography was entertaining. When I watch zombie movies, I'm a much bigger fan of the fast running type than the slow ones. At least to me, they're a lot scarier to watch. I think the movie could've done with a little more explanation, but it's okay because most movies can't really explain this kind of situation well. Understandable. So long as they're scary, they've done their job...and I can definitely say they did their job well here. There's also a new feature to these zombies that I have never seen before. I cannot spoil here, as it applies to certain scenes in the movie, but I thought it was a great addition to their fast speeds. It really added even more to the scariness of the zombies.

Overall:
Overall, I did think it was decent. The zombies, CGI, and acting are all phenomenal, but the lackluster story and characters are hard to overlook. It made me feel empty and not in the sad way.... I would recommend if you simply want to watch an exciting zombie movie that isn't too scary nor emotional. It's one you can casually watch for some excitement, but I suggest not coming if you think it'll be a tearjerker or the next Train to Busan.

FINAL RATING: 6/10

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Not so thrilling zombie flick

Likes: Acting was good. Zombie production was good

Dislikes: Not much happens in my opinion. The story centered more on the isolation and loneliness that comes with a zombie apocalypse rather than trying to survive.

Eh, this movie was just alright for me. Like half the movie centered on Yoo Ah In's mental state dealing with the isolation from being in a zombie apocalypse. There weren't many confrontations with the zombies compared to other movies and when there were, I didn't find it that thrilling.

Both Yoo Ah In and Park Shin Hye acted well, but I just thought the story was a bit of a let down.

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Just another typical zombie virus movie

The usual typical zombie movie with a pinch of quarantine feels. I'm not really a fan of zombie dramas or films so it's really rare for me to get impressed in something related to it.

The storyline is linear and too plain if I may say. I don't see anything that would set this apart on other movies. This also doesn't give enough backstory as to why the virus was even there in the first place.

Yoo AhIn and Park ShinHye were able to portray what people would really look like if that were to happen in reality. Too bad their good acting wasn't justified by the plot itself.

I'm not saying that this is a bad movie. It's actually not just right my alley but if you're into zombie thing, this is a quite decent film to watch and unwind.

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this is probably the best acting from PSH, but that says nothing because she can't act, even here I could sense her typical whimpering crybaby surfacing, and she talked in a faked aegyo. YAI is not any better, he's over reactive.

it was highly unrealistic how a trained cop died in 2mins but a nonathletic girl who only mountain claimed and a gamer dude could survive that long,

plus that drug wore off way too fast, like 5min. they just wanted to add yet another plot move to drag this out, basically 80% of the movie is them in their apartments and literally no one else in their area survived, but magically there was a boy, there was a girl, and they fell in love ;/

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Fun action, but not very deep

Overall I still quite enjoyed this quite a bit, but it had the potential to be a lot more. Being a huge fan of Train to Busan, I kind of couldn't help but compare and it felt like the stakes never really rose in #Alive.

There were a lot of mini "deus ex machina" moments where things just seemed to happen and save the main characters, or they just seemed to be able to fight back: plot armor, if you will. And suspense could have been handled better, I felt like the loud music was kind of a giveaway that something was about to happen, and even silence could have had more of a feeling of anticipation.

I liked the relationship between the main characters but the FL was not really developed — I wanted to know things like why she was so good at making those gadgets.

Some things were also just kind of predictable. The social media/web aspect was a little less of the story than I expected and kind of seem unnecessary altogether.

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Is Alive good movie ?

I think its really good in some side
its really dramatic movie
through its gener is horror and fantasy

very good acting
and very simple story
good VFX
good in horror and fantasy
very good sound


this film focous on survivor
not the cause of things

like it want teach you some ways
to survive if ne day you will encouter the same stuaiton
but its no romance between them
you can call it beromance ?
if you are going to watch it for this reason dont watch it

if you like horror or zombie films
and want to try some thing diffirent from others or dramatic one
it is really good

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#Alive Review

So I watched this like once it aired on Netflix, and I honestly had really high expectations because the last Korean zombie movie I watched (Train to Busan) was one of the best movies I have ever watched. Now with this being said this movie wasn't horrible but it wasn't that good. But I will say that the movie is creative and is funny, but for half of the runtime all we do is look at the characters and nothing interesting happens. The movie is also not memorable or worth watching again, but if you do decide to watch this DO NOT go into it expecting much because you won't get much.

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