Concrete Market (2025)

Rule the fallen world

After a devastating earthquake the likes of which the world had never seen, we first got Concrete Utopia (2023), a film about a world in the midst of catastrophe with interesting moral questions. Then we set out to explore the collapsed world in Badland Hunters (2024) with a bit more action, and now we have Concrete Market (2025), which takes a step back and returns us to the building that provides an oasis in the middle of the apocalypse, where a plan to take over the top position is taking place.

The only problem is that the film doesn’t really consider the fact that supplies are dwindling and that a market in this form has no long-term sustainability. While watching it, I kept being bothered by the question: what is the point of seizing power over the building when the entire society has no hope or future? We saw too little of the outside world for the setting to feel convincing.

I also missed a bit more action in the film, though at least we got some tension in the mind games between the protagonists, who form fake deals with hidden motives. Still, that wasn’t enough for me because the characters’ motivations aren’t sufficiently developed (perhaps the series version offers better character portrayals), so the film felt occasionally boring.

Nevertheless, I hope for more sequels in this cinematic universe so we can see whether humanity will disappear because of the earthquake or find some kind of new beginning.

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