Directed by Um Tae-hwa, Concrete Utopia tells the story of the residents of the Hwang Gung apartment complex as they navigate survival after an earthquake destroys all the other buildings and leaves theirs standing. Soon, they are also approached for shelter by people in the city who have lost their homes. The residents appoint Yeon-tak (Lee Byung-hun) to be their delegate and make decisions on behalf of the building who, in turn, appoints a task force of people, including Min-Seong (Park Seo-jun), to help find food, maintain order in the building and keep non-residents out.
I wasn’t sure watching, whether it was my own lens that made me see these themes in the film, but I found it to be a beautifully-told allegory about capitalism, xenophobia and even colonization. Now having watched it in its entirety, I see that those themes were intentionally explored, scaling them down so much that we’re not afforded the luxury of claiming ignorance on what they mean. At the root of it, whether centuries ago in the west, south, east or north, when people are given privileges over others, the fear of losing those privileges can (and usually does, it seems) drive them to horrific acts, especially if these acts are viewed as self-preservation in the face of life and death.
I love stories like this that expose what humans are capable of when it comes to their survival. They are pretty gruesome, and the characters’ actions are sometimes categorised as barbaric, but I love that the point of them is to show us that that’s us. This is what it looks like to hoard wealth in one place when you know people need it or to prefer that someone dies than inconvenience you.
Concrete Utopia reminds us that beautiful places built and sustained by the pain of others don’t remain standing for very long.
Concrete Utopia is now playing at TIFF ’23. For more information, click here.
