Concrete Utopia (2023) Bleak and Brutal But Riveting Modern Dystopia (Review)

Dystopian stories come in a variety of different forms, and we’ve been treated to many examples of them in recent years. There’s the YA dystopias such as The Hunger Games and Maze Runner that explore systemic oppression in fantastical societies, the more relatable urban dystopias such as Daniel Kaluuya and Kibwe Tavares’s recent effort The Kitchen (a mixed bag of a film that nonetheless had good intentions and ambitions), and ones where confined settings are used to explore the subjugation and dehumanisation of society, for instance Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer.

For me, however, all dystopias are dancing around one core idea that they all explore whether they intend to or not – at the end of the day, when push comes to shove, humans are going to be absolutely horrible to each other. Concrete Utopia takes this principle and runs with it. This South Korean film deals with the catastrophic outcome of a major earthquake that has left almost all of a city in ruin, except one tall block of flats. The film begins with an almost ironic commercial, which preaches the benefits of living in apartments, before we cut to what this building looks like now – a sole monument standing shaken but secure, in a sea of rubble, collapsed infrastructure and smoke. This place is a beacon of hope, but only because it’s the last place left standing. 

This city post-earthquake is in dire straits and as a result people are angry, scared and desperate. We see a couple sharing their flat with a homeless family, and guilt-tripped into sharing a tin of fruit that they were keeping for themselves. At least they’re hospitable though – another man kicks an entire family out of his flat and goes to extreme measures to keep them out. Any good dystopian like this needs a hook early on to show you the threat and the cruelty on display in this society, and the first twenty minutes of Concrete Utopia do a phenomenal job of this. It’s immediately gripping, we’re aware of what’s at stake and the situation our characters are in, and we have an inciting incident that kicks off the overall story. As worldbuilding in a dystopia goes, it’s spot-on.

Concrete Utopia has a fairly lengthy runtime (you’d think someone who regularly reviews movies wouldn’t still sigh when they see a movie is over 110 minutes but nope), and while sometimes it can feel a little slow it’s always engaging. A bulk of this film plays as a survival mission, with the flat’s residents venturing out into the destroyed wastelands to scrounge for supplies and valuables, while the apartments themselves are overseen by Yeong-tal, played superbly by Lee Byung-hun. It makes for a really interesting dynamic, watching an average resident of the flat (a reserved and quiet one too given his introduction) step up to the plate to become a commanding leader forced to make difficult decisions for the future of the residents and the population. 

Although the film always had my interest, it definitely piqued whenever we would venture outside, away from the safety of the building into the harsh lands of desperate survivors and destroyed terrain. There’s some remarkably tense confrontations here that really test our characters’ moral compasses and their resolve, and the cast do a great job of selling the futility of the situation, and the characters’ anger towards it.

Of course, this is a dystopia narrative, so in the true spirit of the genre we’re going to end with a much greater sense of peril and moral complexity than we started with, and while Concrete Utopia does not possess the all-encompassing eye of Big Brother which ends up snuffing out the dissenters in 1984 (the archetypal dystopia) , we do have clashes of loyalties, betrayals and abandonments that are somewhat predictable for the genre, but for those sucked into the film’s narrative, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Director Um Tae-Hwa helms this efficiently and while there’s the occasional bit of clunky CGI work, that’s mostly for background scenery which largely goes unexplored, so it remains unobtrusive.  

There’s some really nasty moments of brutality that help to convey the darkness and the fraying tempers that are coursing through the veins of the entire ensemble, and the final half-hour in particular is hugely satisfying. Not in the sense that everything is wrapped up neatly and that our heroes are triumphant, because this is dystopia and that kind of thing would be inappropriate. More importantly though, there are no heroes. None. Even the characters we are in some way rooting for (due to their plight or how they are suffering under their oppressors) are doing horrible and inhumane things just to get by, and that kind of dilemma is brilliant for the viewer, who frequently questions whose side they should be on.

Concrete Utopia is an eventful film. It’s a bleak and brutal watch at times, but a powerful and rewarding one with some fantastic performances, great escalating tension and a phenomenal cast that enhance the already great material to make a truly memorable dystopia. 

Alex’s Archive – Concrete Utopia (2023)